


Divine Intervention

by Sigma913



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Body Swap, Female My Unit | Byleth, Fire Emblem Three Houses Endgame spoilers, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Spoilers, Gen, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Rhea wins, Sothis as a protagonist, Sothis takes over Byleth, Spoilers, Spoilers for Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), spoilers for all routes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-17 18:42:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 107,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20625737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sigma913/pseuds/Sigma913
Summary: Forced back to life to witness her daughter's insanity, the land she so loved at the brink of a war, and those who ruined her life so long ago still pulling the strings from the shadows, Sothis must put a stop to all this senseless bloodshed and help Byleth's students, while also facing her own guilt over the mercenary's demise.An Alternate Universe where the ritual at the Holy Tomb works, and Sothis takes over Byleth's soul and mind.





	1. Rebirth

It was as if being forced out of a peaceful dream. Her consciousness slowly came to her, but the confusion remained, the feeling of suddenly shifting from unconscious to conscious jumbled her mind, and she felt dizzy.

She could hear voices, but they felt muted and far away, she tried to stand, tried to look at where these voices came from, but she fell instantly. Her vision was an absolute mess, she couldn't see anything but blobs of colors, all walking and waving around her.

What was going on? She had no idea, but she could _feel_ something was wrong. It was hard to explain but it was as if she was displaced, like her entire being didn't fit the reality she is now.

Someone is helping her up, she can tell that much, the mostly yellow blob is holding her... Arm? while the tall green blob keeps trying to talk to her. It feels weird, it feels wrong.

Slowly, finally, her mind begins to focus, it's slow and it feels like an eternity, but it's happening, she can feel it.

She's at the Holy Tomb, where she was buried all those centuries ago, ah right, Byleth was sent here wasn't she? Rhea wanted her to come here.

Did something went wrong? What mess did Byleth get herself into this time? If it was enough to force Sothis awake like this it must've been pretty bad. Ugh, after she saves the mercenary from this, as usual, they need to have a serious talk. For a ''legendary mercenary'' she sure sucks at keeping herself alive.

Her train of thought is cut off by someone poking her, it's one of Byleth's brats, the weirdo who keeps making plans for everything, Claude? Yes that must be it.

He's poking her constantly, trying to get her attention, okay, now this is getting annoying, why isn't Byleth looking at him already? And can he-

_''Cut that out?''_

...

Did

Did she just say that? Did she speak from Byleth's mouth? Everyone is staring at her. At _her_ not Byleth, her, she looks around, only to realize _she is the one looking around_, not Byleth. Come to think of it, Byleth hasn't said a thing since she woke up, did she?

She pushes the brat away, who's still in shock, and falls on the clear, almost crystalline floor, on her knees, where she can finally see her own face.

Byleth's face stares right back at her but her horrified expression isn't Byleth's, it is her own.

''w-What...?''

She keeps searching in every corner of her mind, desperately trying to find that insufferable brat but she's nowhere, she's gone.

Sothis can feel her own body go limp, and someone helps her up, this time it's Rhea, no, Seiros, her own daughter.

The one who sent Byleth to sit on her throne

''What did you do'' she is able to mutter in her weakened state. To her disgust, Seiros' face lights up, as if that was exactly what she wanted to hear. ''I brought you back, to us'', she whispers, as if _that_ makes everything better.

The brat returns, this time getting annoyingly close to her, staring at her eyes ''Teach, you sure you're okay?'' No, no I'm not you brat, that much is easy to tell, so could you give me a minute to adjust to what just happened?

Instead of that barrage of sarcasm, all she's capable of wording is something like ''nimnotrat''. Yeah she really needs to get adjusted to having an actual body again, how long has it been again? It's not even her body, by the gods, she needs to find out what happened to Byleth.

She turns to Seiros, who keeps smiling like a loon, and manages to mutter ''Byleth'' to her, hoping it'd be enough.

''She was a vessel for you, now you're rightfully taking what's yours.'' That's... Not the answer she hoped for, however she's afraid to ask more, the last thing she needs is the brats getting the wrong idea and attacking her for possessing their professor or something. She _needs_ to get the truth out of Seiros, but first sh-

An explosion cuts off any of her thoughts, as a bunch of soldiers invade the tomb, great, all she needed. She recognizes one of them as the Flame Emperor, the person behind the ones who killed Byleth's father.

...Her father... He wanted her away from Seiros, is this what he feared?

Consciousness began to fade again as she passed out.

When she came to again, the fighting seemed to be over, and the Flame Emperor's mask was broken, weird, they kinda look like that brat from the other class, Edel… gard?

As she made eye contact, the girl stared into her eyes, it was odd, it's as if she saw right through her. And scarily enough, it seemed like she did, as she became furious at Seiros.

''What have you done! What have you done to her?! You devil, I will kill you for this!'' she kept shouting, and Sothis wasn't sure if it was directed at her or Seiros, though, it was possibly both. Seiros did respond in kind however. ''I did what was right, not that you'd ever understand you miserable sinner'' yeah, that would definetly help defuse the situation, of course.

Edelgard made to attack Seiros, but the student beside her held her back and forcibly dragged her out, at least that's what she managed to make out of it. Before they vanished in a flash of light, Edelgard gave her such a disgusted look that despite not even knowing her, Sothis couldn’t help but feel guilty. What did Seiros do...?

As if that was the final straw, she finally passed out for good.

If she hoped to wake up from a bad dream, she was out of luck, as she was in a room unfamiliar to her, Seiros' quarters it seemed?

''You're finally awake!''

Following the voice, Sothis quickly notices Seiros watching over her from the corner of the bed, where she's sat.

''I've been waiting for so long for this. You don't know how much I've hoped this day would come, mother''. It was too much, she didn't know what to think, and Seiros once again wasn't being very helpful. She was tired, so she rightfully snapped at her.

''What did you _do_ Seiros!'' she shouted, finally getting up from the bed, somehow managing to get sick from the simple act of sitting. ''What did you do to Byleth and me?! Where IS she?''

Seiros, to much of her annoyance looked simply confused, not worried, not ashamed, as if being asked about something she didn’t really care about. That felt horrible.

''What of her? She was your vessel, mother, you took her over! That's how you're here now.'' Nausea crept even further as Sothis slowly connected the dots on what Seiros meant. ''I... I didn't take over, I gave her my powers, I even gave up my conscience to fully merge with her!''

Seiros smiled, _smiled_, at that, and proceeded to respond with the tone of someone simply discussing gossip. ''Byleth was always meant to simply be your vessel, I created her with that purpose, mother, hers was your soul all along, it was fragmented and slowly putting itself back together, thus even if you tried to remain dormant, your soul would eventually find its way, to fully take over the vessel. A soul needs a body, and a body needs a soul. That’s the very purpose Byleth was created for.''

''You tricked Byleth into being possessed by me...? How do I undo it? Where IS her right now? Where did her soul go? ‘’ Sothis couldn’t even fully get up, just sitting like she was gave her vertigo. ''She's gone mother, I don't know why you care, she was never even meant to exist in the first place. I merely took what was rightfully ours, her body. As for her soul, either it was removed from the body or destroyed to make space for your own''. It was like a punch to the stomach, Sothis lost any and all strenght she had trying to get up and just collapsed on the bed. ''Mother? Is everything okay? Is the body rejecting you? '' She couldn't bother to respond, honestly she half wished the nausea would be worse, because at least she could puke on her, seeing as physically tackling her wasn't happening.

Byleth was gone... No, it can't be, she... She had to be lying right? But then again, it all made sense... She was forced into Byleth's body at birth, she existed there, even if unable to interact, just waiting for one day to take over? That... That meant she killed Byleth... Oh gods she killed Byleth, and now she was wearing her skin like a costume.

Flashes passed by her mind, of Byleth's small talks with her, the moments they shared, experiences she was able to have through the mercenary, all the times Byleth showed concern or attempted to help her... That's how she repayed her.

Tears ran down her cheeks, Byleth's cheeks, she mentally pointed out, she had never experienced crying, and now, thanks to Byleth she was, thanks to her devouring Byleth's soul, stealing that life for herself. ''I missed you too, mother'' Seiros hugged her, the dastard was also crying, but clearly not for the life she just took.

''M-Monster'' She manages to mutter, THAT gets a reaction out of her. ''What did you say mother?''. Sothis doubled down on her insults, she was still weak, but her anger gave her energy to push Seiros away. ''I said you are a monster. Edelgard was right, look at what you’ve done Seiros!'' She looked hurt, it pained Sothis to see her like that, but she seemed anything but remorseful of her actions. ''I-I brought you back, mother, that's what I did! I took down those who hurt you, who hurt us! And then, I proceeded to spread your words to everyone, make everyone love you as much as I did, and now you're back, you can experience their adoration!'' Adoration? That's what she was spreading? Terrifying everyone using her name? Leaving Fódlan in the dark ages out of revenge for what that group did? That's what she saw as love?

''You enslaved, hurt, and killed, hiding behind my name! This isn't love Seiros, you just never let it go! You're lashing out on humanity for what happened centuries ago and using me as your excuse, and now, you did the unthinkable, you played god, worst of all, you made _me _kill Byleth!''. Seiros was still crying, but now she looked angry, good, if she wasn't gonna be remorseful, she could at least be upset. ''I did everything for you all these years, mother, I don't know why you care about a single human when w- ''

_''A single human?''_

The room was silent, Seiros for the first time in what was a lifetime, felt Sothis' angry gaze, it's been several lifetimes since the last time she had seen such, it was never directed at her, but still, she knew not to make her mother angry.

''You made me kill my friend, Seiros, you tricked her into giving away her soul, for what? So you could feel better about yourself?''. ''I did this so we could be r-'' Sothis had none of it, she simply raised her hand, pointing at the door.

''Out.'' Seiros was crushed, Sothis did her best to keep her firm stance, this isn't the Seiros she once knew, she had to remind herself, it hurt, but Seiros had changed, she couldn't just ignore this. ''I want you out of this room, and I do not wish to see you again. What you did is unforgivable, and to make it worse, you don't even seem to realize the horrors you've caused. You are no better than the Agarthans. Leave my sight Seiros, now.''

Seiros left, it felt like her entire world just fell apart. Good, who knows how many others felt exactly like she did because of her actions. Were her body not an absolute mess, Sothis would've probably attacked her right there, it was harsh, she knew, it was an outburst, but Seiros had gone too far.

Her body…

It wasn’t her body.

‘’Alright Byleth, enough is enough, come on’’

Nothing

She kept pushing, looking on every corner of her subconscious, desperately trying to find something, anything, a whisper, an echo, anything

‘’Byleth, stop messing around, I know you’re there, I was still a part of you even when we fused, it must be the same for you, so speak up’’

She could feel a migraine approaching but she kept pushing, still nothing, her own thoughts were the only thing in her mind.

‘’Please…’’

She was alone, all alone.

‘’B-Byleth…’’

Her friend, the one person who kept her company through her entire second life, was now gone. And no one even knew of it

Now that the anger left her, she could feel her weakness again, and collapsed, she didn't even notice the tears coming back, it was as if they never left.

Forced back to life, stuck in a body she can barely use, a body that wasn't even hers, forced to kill her only friend in this world, all thanks to Seiros' machinations, Sothis couldn't do anything but cry tears that weren't even hers.

At some point amidst the tears, she finally lost consciousness again. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had this idea for a while, really wanted to give it a try considering the potential it brings with several characters in the cast.  
I did some experimenting with perspectives during the chapter, to see which works better, as it's been a while since I wrote anything like this, so sorry if it's a bit rushed and messy, I'm still getting the hang of this.  
EDIT: Woops, I forgot to add the multiple chapter tags, this isn't a one and done thing, I plan to continue the story as far as I can.


	2. Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sothis reconnects with some of her remaining family.

The next time she woke up, she felt no better, it was as if Byleth’s body was rejecting her ‘’And why shouldn’t it?’’ She thought to herself, ‘’It’s not mine, I stole it from her.’’

Seiros was nowhere to be seen, Sothis still remembered their argument, gods, the memories pained her, Seiros was her daughter but she went too far, Sothis couldn’t just pretend it was all nice and fine.

She found a fresh change of clothes at the edge of the bed, she somehow managed to muster enough stength to shower and switch outfits. It felt invasive and awkward, it wasn’t her body after all, but now she was at least feeling a bit better, managing to sit down on the bed instead of just collapsing on it once her vertigo returned.

The door opened, however this time, it wasn’t Rhea, but another familiar face.

‘’…Cichol?

His eyes widened, he almost dropped the food tray he was carrying

‘’Oh heavens, so it is true.’’

Quickly glancing outside, he made to enter the room and locked the door, ‘’It… It really is you?’’ He kneeled to get a better look at Sothis, leaving the tray on the bed to her side.

She was a bit reluctant to talk to him, ‘’Seiros did not tell you?’’

‘’She told me you were back but I didn’t want to believe it until I saw for myself. I… I wasn’t aware of what she had done to the professor, and by the time I figured it out, it was already too late.’’ He couldn’t look her in the eyes ‘’Is what Seiros said true? Is she…’’

‘’G-Gone, yes...’’

‘’I… I am sorry mother, I should’ve intervened earlier’’

She patted his head, it’s been a lifetime, literally, since she did something like that to her children, it felt… Good. ‘’I don’t blame you, Cichol, Seiros kept many secrets from everyone, even you, I could tell that when I was just a watcher, you had no way of predicting it.’’

Sighing, Cichol made to sit next to her, offering her the food. She reluctantly accepted, though she didn’t feel much like eating, her body was pretty weak and protesting in hunger. ‘’How is she right now?’’

‘’Lady R- I mean… Seiros is busy, the Adrestian Empire just declared war against the Church of Seiros, so she’s had a lot of work to do, preparing the knights for the upcoming battle.’’ So she threw herself into work, to avoid the issue altogether, well, Sothis wasn’t really surprised, her words were harsh, but not exactly undeserved.

‘’I… Did not have kind words for her once I found out about my situation.’’

‘’That’s understandable. For what it’s worth, I think she needed that. Ever since the hiring the professor she’s been… Unhinged, she hid it well for the most part but once the professor returned with your powers, it was if her mask cracked right then and there. She wasn’t always like that, I assure you. ’’ Sothis sighed, it’s not that she couldn’t tell that, Seiros clearly had gone through a lot after her death, it was as clear as day, and she was ecstatic to finally see one of the many wrongs in her life undone, however, she did not seem regret her actions at all, it was as if any semblance of guilt vanished once she realized it worked.

‘’I just wish she didn’t have to drag an innocent soul to all of this’’ It was Cichol’s turn to sigh, ‘’I do not regret being able to see you again, mother, but I do regret the price it cost.’’ He looked away, ‘’ I may have been a bit cold to the professor at first,’’ Sothis couldn’t help but chuckle ‘’You tell me about it, she was dead afraid of you for a while, why, I had to give her an earful for using my powers to avoid you one time.’’

He joined her with a soft, almost melancholic laugh ‘’She always did seem to have an odd sense of humor didn’t she? For all the stoic looks and stares, you could tell she was expressive in her own way. I… I’m regretful I wasn’t able to know her better, I owe her a great deal’’

‘’It is probably silly to you, after living such a long life, hearing me mourning the death of someone who’s lifespan is but a wink to you.’’ Cichol rested his hand on her shoulder ‘’Quite the opposite, it is because of my life that I can tell why you’re hurt. Seiros completely shut off anyone after your passing, so her connection to humanity seems to have dwindled, I however, took to travelling, knowing the world beyond Zanados, the land you’ve worked so hard to rebuild. I’ve met and outlived plenty of people in my life, fell in love even, and it never gets easier. ’’

‘’I would’ve loved to meet her’’

‘’And she would’ve loved you, mother.’’

They stood there for a bit, enjoying each other’s presence, until Sothis finally broke the silence. ‘’What happens next? Seiros can’t keep doing what she’s doing, and I can’t simply pretend to be Byleth’’

Cichol stared at the ground for a bit, pondering their options. ‘’We can’t simply expose Seiros, as her influence is needed to stop the Empire, believe me, as much as it pains me as well, we need her presence right now. However, once this war is over, we can cross that bridge.’’

‘’So what can we do now? I can’t stay here, I don’t think I can face Seiros again, and…’’ She looked down, staring at her —not her’s, Byleth’s— open palms, ‘’I can’t… Face her students’’

‘’I’ll move you to a different room, give you some space from Seiros’’ Sothis nodded, she would just snap at Seiros again if she saw her. ‘’After that, considering everyone is busy with the war, we could simply slip you away, I’ll tell Seiros in your state you need to be kept safe as far from this war as possible, until you can heal.’’

‘’Run?’’

‘’Indeed, ‘’ Cichol said, rising from the bed, ‘’the bright side of our longevity is that we have time, to hide, to plan, and to return when they least expect. It’s not the first time I’ve been on the run, I can get you set up but I’ll need some time to prepare for everything.’’

She held his hand, ‘’But what about you, Cichol?’’

‘’I… I can’t just leave everything behind, mother.’’ He looked pained but resolute ‘’Rest assured, I will provide you my best closest personnel to help you somewhere safe, but… I can’t leave everyone behind like that.’’

‘’What will you tell the students?’’

‘’Their professor perished from her illness, the goddess’ power was simply too much for her to handle. We have already told them she was sick thanks to the burden of being graced by divinity’’

Sothis chuckled bitterly ‘’So you’ll tell them I killed her, not really far from the truth.’’

Cichol kneeled again, staying on eye level with her, holding her hand. ‘’Mother, please, don’t beat yourself over this, if anyone is at fault, it is Seiros.’’ Even then, Sothis couldn’t ignore the fact she got to keep Byleth’s life, she got to steal everything from her while all she got was oblivion. ‘’This way, everyone will be able to mourn the loss without risking your safety, and it’ll allow the professor to have a proper burial.’’

‘’I guess it is the best that can be done then, thank you Cichol.’’

Her child got up, preparing to leave with the now empty food tray

‘’Anything for you mother, and… Although I wish it could’ve been under better circumstances, I’m glad I can speak with you again.’’

A couple of days passed, she felt a bit better, the change of rooms did help, Cichol would make visits every couple of hours to check in on her, it felt good, not only having someone to talk, but also reminding her she still had family left. Speaking of family, Seiros did no further attempt to see her, that’s for the better, she got herself into this mess, so she should get herself out of it, it was her ways of ruling the church that led to the Empire’s rebellion after all. She was on her own.

One thing she hadn’t been used to yet was the shorter naps, after sleeping for days and weeks, having a body that can only handle half a day of sleep at most felt weird, that’s a short nap for her, not that she had much energy for anything while awake, her body still felt weak.

It was between one of these naps that she heard something, someone entered her room and made no effort attempting to hide their noise, at first she just tried ignoring it, could be just some healers Cichol promised he’d bring to help with her sickness.

However her eyes snapped open when she realized the noise didn’t come from the door to the right, but the window to the left. And by the time she opened her eyes, she was surrounded by a bunch of kids.

‘’Oh…’’

‘’Hey teach, you’re finally awake!’’

Five sets of eyes stared at her waiting for her response, oh no, she was NOT ready for this, and she could feel the pit opening in her stomach

‘’Professor? Are you okay? We heard you were ill so we were worried, Claude managed to find out where you were being kept’’ Said the white haired one, Lysithea, she recalled, not from her memory, but Byleth’s own, she subconsciously intruded into Byleth's memory and fished the information, that felt _really_ wrong, and then, as if to make things worse, her mind was flooded with several memories Byleth had of Lysithea, which felt even _more_ intrusive.

‘’Teach? You’re zoning out. Is something wrong?’’ Sothis cursed, she couldn’t deal with that, it was too much at once, their worried looks, their hopeful expressions, waiting for Byleth to respond, glad she’s alive, the surge of memories that aren’t her own, she needed to get out of there.

Pulling from her reserves, she managed to find enough strength for one Divine Pulse, gods, she’d berate Byleth for misusing her powers, now here she was, using it to avoid a bunch of brats. Closing her eyes, she felt her energy flow, bending time itself, and violently pulling her.

She woke up alone in her room, sighing in relief that it worked.

‘’I couldn’t go too far back, however it should’ve been enough for them to have yet to find this room. I need to get out of here and find Cichol’’ She was already moving, the adrenaline rush letting her quickly get off her bed.

Sothis knew there was a door in the room, of course she did, she saw Cichol pass by it several times, she knew how doors worked, she wasn’t THAT old. However, for some incredibly stupid reason, in her panic, she decided to escape through the window. And for some even stupider reason, didn’t bother to check before jumping out, which was how she found out her room was in the third floor.

As if to mock her, on her way down she saw the same students she tried to avoid, attempting to climb to her room, their faces would’ve been priceless were it not for her fast descent into the pavement.

She attempted the Divine Pulse again however it seems that one was all she had for now. ‘’Well, smashed into the floor a full week after coming back to life.’’ She thought to herself, ‘’Somehow it’s still better than my previous death. At least now they’ll have a body to bury too.’’

She closed her eyes, expecting the cold hard stone, but instead she fell into something softer.

‘’Did you get her, Raphael? For the love of the goddess keep her head supported so she doesn’t break her neck ’’

‘’Yeah, she’s good, Claude, don’t worry about it’’

She opened her eyes to see a giant blonde with a goofy smile on his face

‘’Glad to see you safe and healthy professor. Dang, you must’ve been pretty desperate for fresh air to jump off the window like that, huh?’’

Sothis honestly wished she had just smashed into the pavement instead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wonder how many people will read the first part and think I was going to chicken out of having her interacting with the students.  
The chapter is a bit shorter than the last, as I wanted the student introductions to have an entire chapter for themselves, plus to contextualize better the war. I'm still getting the hang of things so I'll try to make the exposition meatier next time.
> 
> Thank you so much for the replies and kudos on the last chapter! I read your imput and will keep it in mind!  
One thing I want to talk about is Sothis snapping at the end and Rhea's own attitude, I should've made it a bit clearer that this was Sothis' pov. It's not meant to imply Rhea is 100% evil, Sothis snapping was just that, her being overwhelmed with the situation and upset at Rhea's words, not considering about what Rhea herself must have gone through, she was forced back to life, saw her sacrifice undone and her friend dead, all caused by her own blood, so of course once Rhea showed no clear signs of remorse, Sothis would be upset. Some pointed out Rhea didn't exactly make Byleth with the intent of being Sothis' vessel, she merely got lucky, but even then, she still took Byleth to the ritual in hopes it'd awaken Sothis, so she still has enough blame for the situation.  
It's not a black and white issue, but Rhea DID a lot of messed up stuff, giving her blood to her loyal soldiers, breeding vessels for Sothis' soul, it's eerily similar to Grima's cult, however with an actual reasonable way for things to end up the way they did, it looks less as if they were evil all along and more things spiralled out of control over the centuries. I wrote Rhea as she was in that chapter, uncaring and gleeful to have a chance to see her mother reborn, regardless of what that means for Byleth. It's less ''she's evil'' and more ''She did a LOT of stuff to have this chance, and now she'll take it no matter the price''  
We'll see more of Rhea, don't worry, but considering it was Sothis' point of view, of course we couldn't see Rhea's own thoughts or full reaction before Sothis told her to leave.


	3. Legacy

She sat cross legged, laying on the wall of the building she fell off, surrounded by her beloved students, who were all gladly chatting with their teacher, enjoying some time together now that they found out she was okay.

There was only a small problem: Their teacher wasn’t okay, she was gone, and Sothis had no clue how to act around them. Just seeing them cheering for her safety and trying to keep her in the conversation, trying to cheer her up, it was too much. Maybe for someone passing by it looked like she was just enjoying a picnic with her students, but Sothis was doing her best to hide just how hard she was panicking on the inside.

‘’They’re just talking to me, I have nothing to worry about, I just need to keep nodding and acting like I know them, just got to keep pretending I’m fine, just g-‘’

‘’So what was the revelation like, teach?’’ Claude — she at least remembered _that_ without needing Byleth’s memories — broke her train of thought.

‘’The… Revelation?’’

‘’Yeah, for it to knock you out like that it must have been some pretty serious stuff, huh? So what was it about?’’

What was it about? Now that was a good question, Seiros never did clarify to them what was supposed to happen, of course, all she said was that the goddess would reveal Byleth something, as if Sothis would descend from the heavens and whisper something nice into Byleth’s ear or something. Now what the heck was she supposed to say?

‘’I… I can’t remember…’’ She said, fully aware at how pathetic of an answer that was. Claude was aware too, as he seemed unsatisfied.

‘’You can’t remember? You sure? Not even a bit?’’

She tried her hardest not to squirm as she desperately attempted to think of something, but her head was surprisingly drawing a blank, ironic, considering how hard she’d been over thinking up to that moment.

‘’Knock it off, Claude, you’re stressing her out!’’ Lysithea thankfully interrupted, standing between them and pointing a finger to Claude’s chest, who backed down instantly ‘’If she can’t remember, nagging her won’t help. And considering what it did to her, it’s probably best she doesn’t remember anyways, she might just faint again.’’

‘’Alright, alright, I’m sorry teach,’’ He responded, finally giving up, however if his look was anything to go by, he would probably keep an eye on her, ‘’I just got a bit curious, especially with all that happened back there.’’

‘’That’s right, you passed out in the middle of it all, right professor? So you don’t know what happened!’’ It was the loud pink haired girl’s turn to speak, ‘’Edelgard was the Flame Emperor all along, she and Hubert escaped, along with all the Black Eagle students.’’

‘’I think I remember some of that…’’ Sothis responded, trying to add to the conversation, in reality, she mostly remembers Edelgard snapping at Seiros, she seemed to have somehow figured out what happened, and she wasn’t happy. Knowing how one of Byleth’s students reacted to finding out the truth really just made her even more nervous now that she was surrounded by nine of them.

She tried to hide her worries by eating the pastries they brought for her, and heavens, that helped like nothing else, it had been an eternity since she actually tasted food, and these sweets made all that time feel worth it, that Lysithea girl had some great taste. Honestly, the fact Cichol knew they had these in the dining halls and never brought her any of it meant they were due to a serious talk.

‘’She took over the Adrestian Empire and declared war against the Church, ‘’ the glasses wearing child said, ‘’and the Alliance and the Kingdom by proxy.’’ He seemed worried, rightfully so, by what she’d been told, they would attack the monastery first. All she could do was hope Seiros had prepared for anything.

Lysithea continued, her brows furrowed ‘’I was surprised when I heard the Black Eagles sided with her, most of them seemed nice. Edelgard must have convinced them somehow.’’ She could remember, well, Byleth could remember, some of the Black Eagle class, they weren’t Byleth’s but she made a point of interact and spend time with all students, to give them all a chance to train and learn with her.

Which was why even not being her, Sothis felt a bit of irrational anger with the news, whatever their reasons were, they turned their backs on Byleth. ‘’I’m sure they have a good reason for that, teach,’’ Claude said, apparently being able to notice her anger, ‘’They didn’t all immediately leave, oddly enough, it seemed at first they chose to stick around, heck they were even asking about you to the guards, I recall Bernie freaking out at one of them.’’

‘’It was really not like her at all, Caspar and Ferdinand had to physically drag her away.’’ Hilda continued, ‘’Afterwards they just… Stopped asking in general, and then in a couple of days, ran off.’’ 

That was odd, she recalled —once again from Byleth’s memories, much to her agony— this Bernie girl, Bernadetta, to be everything but confrontational. Something was indeed odd.

‘’Considering the way they were acting, I think they just couldn’t believe Edelgard betrayed them, and were looking for answers themselves. Maybe that’s why they wanted to talk to you? Considering you were the one who got the closest to the Flame Emperor.’’ Claude thought out loud. ‘’But why would they run back to her? Maybe they assumed the church framed her?’’

‘’Not that it matters much, as we’ll have to fight them in this war…’’ The blue haired tired looking girl responded, ‘’I wish I could just stay back, I don’t think I’ll be of much help, and I don’t want to hurt anyone.’’ She looked down, trying to avoid eye contact, Sothis felt the desperate need to reassure her, and she could tell it wasn’t Byleth’s memories this time, this girl clearly needed a hug.

‘’Do not worry about it, I’m sure it will not come to that, Marianne’’ said another of Byleth’s students, a…

Green haired girl.

‘’Cethleann?’’

‘’E-Excuse me?’’ She responded, and that broke Sothis out of her stupor, curses, she forgot, she wasn’t a voice in Byleth’s mind anymore, she couldn’t just speak her mind, people could hear her now, and they were all staring at her, waiting for an explanation as to why she just called their classmate one of the four saints of legend.

‘’Y-You asked me which of the four saints I was most interested on, I figured it’d be Cethleann after reading about her for a bit’’ Again, a lame excuse, but she could be forgiven, it’s not every day you get to see your baby granddaughter —and geesh, what an adorable young girl she was, Sothis’ heart almost skipped a beat (that is, if it were beating in the first place).

‘’Ah, I see, that’s really nice professor!’’ she managed to get over the initial awkwardness, ‘’She is also my favorite, all of her adventures are fascinating, and her caring, polite nature is inspiring!’’

By the heavens above, all she wanted was to pinch the girl’s adorable cheeks, Sothis didn’t care how bad she was at keeping her identity a secret, her granddaughter complimenting herself and looking so proud was the cutest thing ever.

But she doubted that was a good idea, considering her current situation, so she —painfully— refrained from doing anything weird. Instead she focused on the other students, while her adorable granddaughter helped calming them down, such a thoughtful young girl she was.

‘’Speaking of the other classes, our comrades at the Blue Lions don’t seem to be doing much better either’’ the lanky kid with atrocious purple hair spoke, his tone was dripping with arrogance, Sothis thought, ‘’It seems Dimitri has lost it.’’

‘’I heard he crossed paths with Edelgard while she escaped… There are rumors of the things he did to the imperial soldiers escorting her out, they’re… Not pretty.’’ The girl with the short orange hair —what is up with these kids and their hairs anyways, she missed the simple days where everyone just had green— continued, looking a bit ill just from the thought.

‘’The prince’s classmates don’t know what to do either, they seem mostly worried about Dimitri, don’t know if we can count on them during the big fight.’’ Claude finished, his face completely serious for once. The atmosphere became somber as they suddenly remembered what was about to happen, she couldn’t blame them, these kids were about to be thrown into war against their own friends. Sothis wondered what Byleth would’ve said in this situation, and sadly couldn’t think of anything.

‘’Come on guys, don’t get all gloomy on me, it’ll all be okay!’’ Said the student who caught her from her fall —Raphael going by what Claude said— in an attempt to cheer them all up. ‘’We just gotta give it our all out there like we always do, if we meet our friends, even better, because we get to knock some sense into them, and everything will be back to normal!’’ he said, gesturing punching something.

Somehow his lame attempts helped with the mood, perhaps it was everyone’s desperation to grasp into anything nice in these times of war, but they were all chuckling again. ‘’Of course you would suggest beating them into submission, Raphael’’ Lysithea said, her smile betraying her attempted insult. ‘’He is right, we can do this.’’

She couldn’t help but appreciate it, it had been a while since she was around such a joyful bunch of people, and these kids really felt like they were close, it felt good. It was even better than when she and Cichol would spend time together, it felt like all those years ago in Zanado, her children swarming her to tell her about their day, having fun, laughing, arguing…

It felt like family.

‘’Besides, we got Teach watching our backs, we can’t lose!’’ Claude said, fist pumping, which instantly brought back Sothis’ panic.

‘’You’re right Claude, with the professor we can do anything!’’

_"Oooh no"_

‘’She is Jeralt’s daughter after all, she will show them all that his legacy lives on!’’

_"Please stop_’’

‘’Indeed, with such a high caliber warrior by our side, I feel much safer.’’

_’’I’m not her, please…’’_

‘’We trust you teach, we know with you by our side, we can do this.’’

_‘’Please…’’_

She could feel her nausea returning.

/-/

Cichol, or as he was now known, Seteth, had a busy week, not only because he was preparing to protect a monastery filled with children from a full scale attack from an empire hellbent on crushing the Church of Seiros, but also because said Seiros, his also in hiding sister, had decided to casually play god behind his back for who knows how long and actually bring back their mother. While he couldn’t be happier to see and talk to her again after the way she was taken from them, he now had to help keep her hidden from the students, who were very close to the person she’s now using as a host, and prepare for her safe escape from said people before they figure out something was wrong and act on their anger, worse yet, before Edelgard and her army reach the monastery, as per the statement of several witnesses, she made no attempt to hide her knowledge of what happened, much less what she thought of it. He considered having her taking Flayn along, far away from this war, but he would feel safer if his daughter remained with him, if things get bad, he knows enough secret passages in the monastery to take her to safety before the empire can even notice their absence.

But at the same time, his mother returning was a blessing in these painful times, giving him much needed comfort in the face of the war they were about to enter. He surprisingly fell easily into a routine of visiting and talking with her, mostly about the old days and what he’s been doing ever since the end of the war against Nemesis. It felt nostalgic, in a way, outside of his daughter and Rhea, he really didn’t have anyone to talk so candidly about the past, and even with them he couldn’t be as candid as he was now. Their chats were honestly the only thing keeping him from going insane with all the talk about war, Rhea’s barely hidden despair thanks to her argument with mother, and —worst of all— Byleth’s passing.

After another long day of preparing the knights and constantly planning for every single possible strategy the empire might spring on them, all he wanted to do was have a nice dinner with his mother, spend some time with his daughter, and then rest until he was dragged away for another war council. He expected a nice evening with his family to remind him of why he’s doing all this and help relaxing after the stressful day.

Which was why when he saw his mother, cross legged on the ground, several pastries on her lap, surrounded by the Golden Deer class, and looking at him with the most desperate cry for help a person could imply through a stare, he could feel the migraine beginning.

‘’Children, care to explain why the professor isn’t in her room this very instant?’’ He didn’t as much shout, but raised his voice enough for their chat to die instantly as they noticed his presence, their smiles replaced with terror.

Except for Claude, as usual.

‘’Seteth, hey there! We were only getting her up to date on what is going on. She has been out of it for a while after all’’ He responded, throwing his arms behind his head as if he had nothing to care about. Seteth raised a single brow, the question of _how_ they found her heavily implied, and catching on, he continued. ‘’Besides, she fell off the window.’’

He considered calling his lie, for it had to be one, however his mother’s expression of embarrassment made him reconsider it. ‘’I was only out for a few hours, what the heck happened?’’ he asked his mother, managing to calm down so as to not sound like he’s reprehending her.

The fact she responded with her mouth still full of cake somehow made his migraine get stronger.

‘’I… Tripped.’’

‘’You tripped.’’

She nodded

‘’Off the window’’

She nodded again, but didn’t meet his eyes.

‘’And into the safe arms of your entire class, who just happened to be passing by, carrying assorted pastries for no specific reason.’’

‘’That’s the gist of it!’’ Claude responded, shrugging it off as if it was nothing, all while Sothis slowly allowed her face to sink into her hands, mouth still full of said pastries.

Looking at the scene, he just gave up, nothing he could do at this point beyond damage control, and taking his mother back to her room before she had a full on nervous breakdown.

‘’Very well, at least you are alright, children, I thank you for your help, however I can’t let her here, she needs to get back to her room to rest some more.’’

She handed her pastries to Lysithea as Seteth helped her up, one hand over his shoulder as she used him as support to stand.

‘’Will she be alright? We need to be ready for the empire’s attack’’ said Claude, once again sticking his nose where he’s not welcome.

‘’I do not know, your professor is very tired, and she needs more time to recuperate.’’

‘’Can we at least visit her?’’ It was Hilda who asked, sounding desperate.

/-/

Visit her? She wanted to refuse, to let Cichol cover her, after all, she couldn’t give them what they were looking for. They wished to see their teacher, their friend, who was now gone. To allow them such would just be lying to their faces, for the sake of keeping them fine, it is no better than what they were doing allowing Rhea to continue what she was doing for the sake of winning the war.

But was she right to do that? To give them hope like that, and then vanish? They’ll be devastated, crushed that the teacher they saw fine and well just up and vanished, either dead without ever speaking to them one final time or just ran away, leaving them to fend for themselves in the upcoming war.

It was the desperation in Hilda’s tone that hurt the most, she and the others looked so hopeful for something good, to have a semblance of positivity in their current situation. And she had stolen even that from them, and was about to do so again. Could she keep lying to their faces? Pretend she was what she wasn’t?

She took Byleth away from them, didn’t she? What right did she have to just pretend everything was fine?

But at the same time, what right did she have to abandon them when they needed someone the most? Or even worse, the Black Eagles left after they were denied to see Byleth, would the Golden Deer attempt the same? To leave or just begin harassing the knights for answers?

Seiros already allowed a team of students to betray her, if they attempted anything similar, she would not let what happened to the Black Eagles repeat, she would have to make examples out of them.

She would kill them.

‘’I can’t b-‘’

‘’Yes’’

Cichol turned to her, meeting her fierce and decided stare. ‘’Yes, I do not mind, I cannot rest forever.’’

‘’V-Very well, you heard her.’’

The students cheered

/-/

She was back on her bed, sighing in relief once the nausea passed.

‘’What was that all about, mother? You can’t seriously be thinking of continuing interacting with the children like that.’’

‘’Cichol, they need someone to calm them in these coming weeks. I… I took away the one person who could do that. I want to at least give them a safe space to be children, just chat away and have fun a bit.’’

Cichol threw his arms up ‘’You looked like you wished to be anywhere else but there when I arrived.’’

‘’Well yeah, because they kept talking about how great Byleth was and how much she was loved by them!’’ She put a hand on her head, just remembering it was already giving her a headache.

‘’And if they do it again?’’

‘’I’ll just change subject, I wasn’t prepared for it, okay?’’

Her son’s exasperated face evolved into pure frustration

‘’This isn’t necessary!’’

‘’And what are we to do? Tell them I died? You think they will just accept it and not go meddle around the monastery looking for answers?’’

‘’I…’’

‘’What would happen, Cichol? After the other students betrayed Seiros, what do you think would happen to more students acting suspiscious?’’

He went silent, he knew very well what the answer was. Seiros’ hand would’ve been forced, even if she didn’t wish for it, she still needed to maintain peace and order, especially in these turbulent times, and since she already allowed the Black Eagles to escape right under her watch, she’d need to strike swiftly.

‘’So you’re just going to keep lying to them?’’

That felt like a punch to the gut, that was exactly what it was, wasn’t it? Lying to them, pretending to be a person she killed.

‘’You said we could only reveal what Rhea did after the war. Once the war is over and they are all safe, the truth will be revealed, I will do it myself if necessary. But until then, they need someone, Cichol.’’

‘’Mother you can’t be serious!’’

Sothis huffed, crossing her arms, ‘’Cichol I have made my mind, those kids need Byleth, and if she can’t help, then I will do what I can to fix that.’’

She and Cichol spent a good minute in a stare contest until he finally gave up, sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose. ‘’Now I know from where in our family Flayn got that side of hers from.’’

Sothis instantly perked up at the mention of her granddaughter, the mood changing completely ‘’Speaking of her, Cichol she is adorable! I cannot believe how cute she is!’’

‘’Ah yes,’’ he coughed awkwardly, ‘’I forgot you had yet to meet her. She is indeed adorable, a lovely young girl and I couldn’t be prouder of her.’’

‘’Oh, you should’ve seen her, trying to make her friends feel better, comforting them, she was such a nice caring kid, you did an amazing job, Cichol, I wanted to do nothing but to hug her and not let go!’’ Sothis giggled, actually leaving Seteth somewhat weirded out.

‘’Y-Yes, but do remember she’s not aware of your… Situation.’’

Sothis instantly deflated. ‘’And you ruined it.’’

‘’I am sorry mother, I just don’t think Flayn would take the truth very well, she cared about the professor.’’ He put his open palms in front of him to motion her to stop, right as she was about to say something ‘’And that is _not_ to say this is your fault, it is not, however she wouldn’t take it well anyways.’’

‘’I understand…’’

‘’So you are sure of it?’’

‘’Yes.’’

He sighed, in that moment alone, all those centuries he lived and struggled could be felt, it was wrong of her to ask of him this much when he was already so busy and tired, but she had no other option.

‘’You were always too kind for your own good. I hope you know what you are getting yourself into, mother.’’

She chuckled bitterly, looking down on her covers.

‘’Me too, Cichol, me too.’’

/-/

_‘’Aaahhh! G-gh-Guh-GHOST!’’_

_The girl realized quickly that what is before her isn’t an apparition, but her teacher_

_‘’O-Oh, professor…?’’_

_‘’What are you doing out here all alone Lysithea?’’_

_She tried to collect herself, she was clearly desperately attempting to save face from her initial freak out. ‘’I seem to have forgotten a book in the dining hall, so I was on my way to collect it. Y-You don’t need to come with me if you do not wish to, I am perfectly capable of going on my own.’’_

_‘’I don’t doubt that, apologies, I got curious and went to check on you.’’_

_As she made to walk away, the girl stretched her arm, as if to trying to grasp her, even if their distance is too far for that_

_‘’B-But, I thought it’d be nice for us to walk and talk a bit, don’t you think? And to be abundantly clear, this has nothing to do with my nonexistent fear of ghosts!’’_

_Byleth stared at her for a moment, before finally walking back to her with a small smile_

_‘’Now that I think about it, I do recall needing to check something in the dining hall.’’_

_The duo makes their way through the chill of the night, the light of the moon helping their view as they walk towards the stairs of the main building._

_‘’So you’re not afraid of ghosts? That’s really nice then.’’_

_‘’W-What?’’_

_‘’Because I am, terrified actually.’’_

_Lysithea was dumbfounded. ‘’You are? But you’re older, an adult!’’_

_‘’Indeed, but just because you’re old doesn’t mean you can’t have irrational fears, it’s simply human nature.’’_

_‘’Human nature…?’’_

_‘’I’m actually glad to have you around here, you know, makes it way less scary to have someone I can trust watching my back, besides, you’re pretty strong, I doubt any ghost can get the jump on us with you here.’’_

_The girl looked away, the praise making her blush a little._

/-/

‘’And he said it was too sweet, could you believe that?’’ The white haired girl huffed, taking another bite from her cake

The pink haired girl chuckled, ‘’Well if anyone would complain about something being too sweet, sounds like it’d be Felix alright.’’

‘’I think it’s delicious Lysithea, I’ll have to ask you to show me your recipe later!’’ The older girl continued, finishing her own slice.

‘’Oh, feel free to take some, I made a lot on this batch anyways.’’

‘’Don’t mind if I do, Annie is going to love it.’’

/-/

_Her only warning was the girl’s screams as she fell, Byleth had to pick between stopping her student’s fall or the several pots and pans she was carrying. On instinct she went for the student, grabbing her before she’d hit the ground, and grimacing at the noise all the utensils she carried did once they hit the ground_

_‘’Professor I am so sorry!’’_

_‘’It’s alright, are you okay?’’_

_‘’I am, dear goddess, I’m so sorry, I thought I could carry it all on my own, to speed up the process but I underestimated how heavy everything is.’’_

_‘’That and the fact there are stairs on the way’’ Byleth said, looking at the flight of stairs Annette had just fallen off of. She didn’t exactly fall down the stairs as much as she tripped on the top while running and flew all the way into the ground. At least it meant she didn’t injure herself._

_‘’I just wanted to get this done faster, to help everyone, but it seems I just made a mess…’’_

_‘’You know, there IS a way to get this done faster, if you ask someone to help you.’’_

_Annette perked up, ‘’I don’t want to bother!’’_

_‘’Nonsense,’’ Byleth said, already collecting some of the pans on the floor, ‘’It’ll be the best way of solving this. If you must, think of it as your professor making sure you’re not too injured to work on the next mission.’’_

_‘’I… Yes! Thank you professor!’’_

/-/

The three were in her new room, it wasn’t very spacious compared to her previous quarters —then again those were the Archbishop’s quarters — but it did have a small table and some seats, allowing her a much needed change from staying on the bed the entire day. Hilda, Lysithea and Mercedes had also brought her some tea and more pastries, which she had welcomed with open arms after Cichol kept telling her she needed ‘’healthy meals to help with her get stronger.’’

She’d believe him more if it weren’t the exact same thing she told him and his siblings whenever she wanted them to eat their food.

‘’Well I am loving them, it is exactly what I have been needing’’ she added, happy to indulge in the light conversation.

‘’I’m glad to hear, professor, I didn’t know you had a sweet tooth, would’ve offered some sooner.’’

‘’Yeah, could’ve used that to get on your good graces before the tests.’’ Hilda interjected, with a light chuckle, which soon spread to everyone in the room.

Sothis took another sip of her tea, enjoying the nice warmth of the cup in her hands as she allowed herself to relax, melting in her seat.

‘’You seem to be doing a lot better, professor.’’ Mercedes observed, ‘’You seem less pale and the bags under your eyes are vanishing too.’’

She really did feel better, seemed chatting with these kids helped them both, she could interact with more people than she ever could before, and they had a place to escape the hectic routine preparing for war. However, there was still a problem.

/-/

_‘’You really shouldn’t overwork yourself, professor, I’m concerned about your health’’_

_‘’I’m not really doing much, Mercedes.’’_

_‘’There you go again, the Goddess won’t smite you for relaxing a little, you know that right?’’_

_They both chuckled, Byleth because she knew the very goddess had also been nagging her to rest too._

_‘’I think it’s necessary to give yourself a break every now and then, professor,’’ She continued ‘’the mind tends to make mistakes when it’s tired.’’_

_That was a pretty dangerous thought however, she did recall feeling a bit sloppy in their last mission, several points where she shouldn’t have made mistakes, several spots where her movements seemed slower._

_‘’You may be right… However I can’t slow down just like that…’’_

_‘’Then let us help you every once in a while. I’d be more than happy to assist you, professor, just say the word.’’_

_She couldn’t help but smile as she nodded_

/-/

‘’Yeah, I agree, Mercedes, these visits are doing wonders for you, Professor.’’ Hilda continued, ‘’I don’t know why Seteth keeping you cooped up in here, but you clearly needed some fresh air and to see some familiar faces.’’

Lysithea sighed ‘’Too bad not all familiar faces have good intentions, Claude is still nagging her about the revelation, isn’t he?’’

Hilda hid her own sigh with a sip of tea, ‘’He is, he can manage to hold a conversation, don’t get me wrong, but there are times where he just insists in asking.’’

/-/

_‘’Poison?’’_

_‘’What do you think Teach? Odorless, colorless, and with a two day delay just in case you don’t have access to the target instantly. Pretty great, huh?’’_

_Byleth sighed, crossing her arms ‘’And you plan on using this how?’’_

_‘’Erm… I mean, I didn’t say I have an immediate use for it, but you know, it’s good to have these sort of things prepared.’’_

_Byleth remained unconvinced, Claude was starting to squirm himself under her gaze, his relaxed disarming expression showing some small cracks. ‘’Come on Teach, trust me on this one, I’m not gonna go poison someone in the monastery, It’s just for safekeeping.’’_

_‘’And the fact we have the Battle of Eagle and Lion in two days is just an odd coincidence, correct?’’ Byleth said, now it being her turn to smile, but instead of disarming, it was just smug, enjoying Claude’s reaction once she called his bluff; it was quick but for a small second he lost his composure, before defaulting to his own mask._

_‘’Why teach, you are assuming I plan to cheat our way to victory? Me? Your favorite student?’’_

_‘’Favorite? Guess I’m not the only one assuming things then.’’_

_Claude laughed at the burn, ‘’Dang teach, for all your blank expressions you’re hiding some venom, maybe I should take some of that for my next poison.’’_

_Byleth started walking away, chuckling at him ‘’Don’t poison the other classes, Claude.’’_

_‘’Alright, alright, but you’re the one who’s gonna have to fight Dimitri, I do NOT want to fight him head on, I’ve heard the stories about his ridiculous strength.’’_

/-/

‘’He’s just worried…’’ Sothis said, defending Byleth’s student, suddenly starting to feel a bit under the weather again.

‘’Professor? Are you okay?’’ Mercedes said, noticing her sagging a bit.

‘’Y-Yes, I just… I’m sorry, I think I need to rest a bit more…’’

‘’I’ll call Seteth, you two keep an eye on her’’ Hilda said, already getting up. When Cichol arrived, Lysithea and Mercedes had already helped her back to her bed, making sure she was comfortable, and sat beside her, keeping her company as she slept.

‘’What happened?’’ he said, barely masking his concern.

‘’She was getting tired, so we took her to bed,’’ Mercedes responded, ‘’I think she’s still too tired to be straining so much.’’

‘’But she was looking so much healthier just a few minutes ago…’’ Hilda interjected, confused.

‘’I think it is best to leave her sleeping for now, girls,’’ Seteth said, shooing the trio to the door I will have someone look after her. Go focus on your training.’’

They all stood at the door frame, glaring at him. And he sighed

‘’This does not mean you can’t visit her later, just give her some space for now. I shall inform you when she wakes up.’’

/-/

_‘’You know, we should make a promise.’’_

_‘’A promise?’’_

_‘’Five years from now is the Millennium Festival, I’ve heard all sorts of great things about it.’’_

_‘’Oooh I see! So you want us to meet up there after we graduate.’’_

_‘’It would be nice, wouldn’t you say, teach? Seeing each other after a while, catching up, seeing how we all changed.’’_

_‘’What about you, professor? You will come too, right?’’_

_‘’Of course she will, she wouldn’t miss seeing her favorite students all grown up and successful, right?’’_

/-/

When she woke up, it was as if all the progress she did was gone.

Byleth was punishing her, that was the only possible reason, she kept remembering these memories that weren’t hers, memories of the times she and her students were happy. All reminders of what she stole from everyone.

‘’Ah, you’re awake.’’ Her son, sitting at her bedside perked up, a tired smile on his face

‘’How long…?’’

‘’You slept for the rest of the afternoon and the night that followed, it’s almost dawn.

He didn’t sleep, she could tell, he spent all his time worried sick about her, on top of everything he had already been worrying about. In her current state she was nothing but a hassle for everyone.

‘’The visits have been helping me,’’ she started, no longer able to endure the silence in the room, ‘’I’ve been able to stay up longer, walk around and even felt some of my strength returning.’’

‘’That’s good.’’

‘’You need to get some rest, Cichol, you’re overworking yourself to death.’’

‘’I will, do not worry, once you’re safe and away from ground zero of the Empire’s attack, I’ll be able to rest easier.’’

She froze.

Yes, that was their plan, right? For her to leave and abandon everyone in the middle of battle.

He sat down at the edge of the bed, putting his hand on her shoulder. ‘’The visits will make our alibi for your escape a bit more difficult, but I will try, mother, we will get you to safety, I promise.’’

To safety

Far away from the monastery as it is about to be attacked. Leaving her friend’s beloved students behind to fend for themselves. Her children, lost and vulnerable.

Her granddaughter.

‘’Yes… About that…’’

She could tell the moment realization dawned on her son’s face, slowly calm and collected turned into sheer disbelief and horror. Cichol’s frustration was palpable, she could tell he knew from that very sentence what was about to happen, and he was dreading every second of it.

‘’No, you can’t.’’

‘’Cichol, I don’t want to abandon you all.’’

‘’Mother, you’d be in grave danger!’’

‘’When wouldn’t I be, Cichol?’’ She threw her hands in the air dramatically, ‘’Edelgard already wants my head, at least here I can protect the children and fight with more people helping me.’’

‘’You don’t have to, mother, I swear I will die before I let anything happen to these children.’’

‘’And that’s supposed to be _better?__!_’

Both remained silent.

They were worried, stressed and at their wit’s end, it was clear the threat of war and Sothis’ situation was taking a toll on them both. After being silent for a few minutes, they both took deep breaths and started again.

‘’I don’t want to abandon them, Cichol. I trust you, but I don’t think I’d ever forgive myself if I let Byleth’s kids fight alone. She loved them, they were like family to her.’’

‘’Mother…’’

She was crying again. ‘’I kept having these flashes, memories that aren’t mine, leftovers of Byleth’s memories, of her time with these kids. It’s as if she’s punishing me… She was so happy, Cichol, they all were… She loved them and had hopes for them, hopes that I want to see met, even if she’s not here to see it for herself.’’

Cichol felt frustrated, he knew his mother’s intentions were pure and genuine, however she was asking him to let her risk herself, to let her possibly die again.

‘’You can’t even fight in this state, mother…’’

Can’t fight, indeed.

How could she fight when her body is in such a weak state? But then again, that wasn’t the case, was it? Byleth was strong, so strong, her muscles, reflexes and mind all honed to be the best fighter she could. Sothis knew that because she was a part of her even back then.

Physically she was healthy, there was nothing wrong with her. Which meant the problem was with Sothis herself, not the body but the mind. She needed to get a grip, find enough willpower to finally mute all the dark thoughts clouding her mind and prepare for the fight, all this time with these kids, all these memories, they kept making her weak, ill, because it reminded her of her own failure.

However… Brief flashes came to her, not from Byleth’s, but her own memories, long distant, fading echoes, of a lost time. Her children living in Zanado, the war that ravaged the land, how tired she felt once she and her children did everything in their power to heal Fódlan… A bandit breaking into her chambers, with a knife in hand.

Seiros’ cries for her, holding her remains.

Her children, terrified, being butchered one by one, by a weapon forged from her desecrated remains.

She will never allow that to repeat. These aren’t her children, but they were Byleth’s.

Sighing, Sothis slowly got up, sitting at the edge of the bed opposite to Cichol, and then, for the first time without any support or help, getting off the bed —for the first time she didn’t feel any nausea or weakness, all she felt was the need to protect the people Byleth called family— Cichol attempted to help but she motioned him to stop.

Her body wasn’t weak, Byleth was strong, she just had to figure out how to use it, how to trigger the muscle memory, the training that is not hers. All she needed was to get used to this.

And just like that, she stood, for the first time unaided, only one thought in her mind: Protecting the Byleth’s family and her own.

She turned to her son, the family she so desperately wished to protect, and with firm resolution, asked him one thing.

‘’Train me.’’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kept ya waiting huh?  
Sorry for the delays, life got in the way and I'm out of a computer right now. Plus I really wasn't satisfied with the first draft of this chapter so I gave it some time to cook while I was busy. The result is a beefier chapter which I hope makes up for the time lost.


	4. Preparations

She fell on the ground with a loud thud

‘’Again’’

Without thinking twice, she was back on her feet, no complaints, no protests, this is what she wanted and needed.

Still didn’t mean she wasn’t annoyed at how easily Cichol dodged her sword strike and smacked her in the face with his own training sword, making her fall again.

‘’Good heavens your fighting skills are atrocious.’’

‘’Thanks’’ she said, getting up again.

This wasn’t working, clearly, she managed to get herself out of the constant state of malaise, but it didn’t help when she wasn’t used to fighting like this.

‘’You are still acting on impulse, your openings are obvious and you freeze when you see a strike coming.’’ Cichol so helpfully said, ‘’I should not be surprised, considering you were always one to wear your feelings on your sleeve, but still.’’

‘’Yes, yes, I got it, I am bad at this, can we get back to it?’’

‘’Are you sure?’’

‘’We don’t have time!’’

Cichol assumed his stance once again, letting her start. This time she took his advice to heart, not letting him bait her into striking first, no matter how impatient she grew.

Gods fighting seemed way faster when Byleth was doing it, now it was a slow drag of bluffs and counters. Still, she had to be patient, trying to clear her mind, she focused on letting Byleth’s body do the fighting.

Cichol struck first, she managed to block it with her own blade, not without being pushed back a bit by the sheer strength of the strike; Cichol wouldn’t let her have any time however, striking again, this time, she dodged out of the way, making him overextend and leave himself open for her counter.

Instead of his eyes widening, like she hoped, they remained calm and collected, as he effortlessly dodged her with a spin, using the momentum for his next strike, but she saw it coming, lowering herself to avoid it, and responding with an upwards slash, which he barely dodged, actually surprised, leaving him open to a kick to the chest as she wouldn’t let him regain his ground.

It was working! She was letting Byleth’s instincts do the fighting and focusing on planning ahead! She could do it after all!

However her excitement took away her focus, which led to her not noticing Cichol kneeling was less from pain and more to slice at her legs, which were regaining balance from the kick, making her trip and fall.

Looking up, she could see him pointing the sword at her.

‘’Again?’’

‘’Ugh, maybe a small break please?’’

He chuckled, ‘’If it makes you feel any better, you are indeed improving.’’

‘’Not fast enough however.’’

‘’Now I wouldn’t say t-‘’

They were cut off by someone applauding.

‘’Dang Seteth, you are brutal!’’

Claude walked in, Hilda and Leonie following.

‘’You were watching?’’ the Nabatean asked, worriedly reviewing their entire training session in his mind, fearing having let anything slip during it.

‘’I was going to try and improve my aim a bit, but what can I say? It’s always a sight to see the teach fighting. Though I can see she’s still not back to a hundred percent, huh?’’

‘’I am _working _ on getting back on track.’’ She said, clearly annoyed by his comment, the expressiveness surprising Claude.

‘’Woah, I didn’t mean anything by it, sorry.’’

‘’Ignore him, Professor, he’s just been really nervous these past few weeks.’’ Hilda said, poking her head from behind Claude’s shoulder. The boy in question sighed, shaking his head, ‘’You’re making me sound like a worried child here.’’

‘’Would that be wrong? ‘’Oh Hilda’’ She said, trying to mockingly mimicking a deep voice. ‘’I just can’t understand why the Black Eagles left, what is Edelgard’s plan? What is happening to t-.’’

Claude’s smile looked a bit more strained and fake now, as he grabbed Hilda’s shoulder. ‘’You know what? You’re right Hilda, maybe I am a bit stressed, how about some training to help? Since you’re such a worried and caring friend you will of course spar with me, right?’’

‘’W-Wait I never said that, Clau-‘’ Hilda never finished her sentence, as Claude physically dragged her to the other side of the training grounds, probably to force her to work until she was exhausted.

Leonie took that chance to approach the green haired duo, still chuckling from the scene.

‘’You know Professor, if you’re having trouble, I could help you get used to fighting again, we _were _trained by the same person after all.’’

Sothis did her hardest to not grimace as she was reminded of Jeralt, doing her best to not let that train of thought go any further; the last thing she needed now was to get sick again.

Cichol noticed it, and attempted to respond for her. ‘’It is an interesting idea, however I think we are getting results here as it is, isn’t that right, professor?’’

Sothis scratched her chin, on one hand, it would be risky, this could ruin her entire mental fortitude and send her right back to bed… On the other, if she trained in a similar fighting style to Byleth that _would _help her improve a lot more. ‘’Actually,’’ she began, Seteth’s smile becoming as strained and fake as Claude’s a minute ago, ‘’I think that is a good idea, Seteth.’’

To his credit, he recovered rather quick, only freezing for a split second before springing back into his mask, ‘’Of course, you would know better.’’ _That _was a thinly veiled attack if she’s ever seen one, ‘’I can oversee the training if you wish, make sure nothing goes wrong?’’

Leonie chuckled, ‘’Seteth come on, it’s just training, take this chance to rest, you look like you haven’t had a good night of sleep in weeks now.’’ She wasn’t wrong, between the strategy meetings, taking care of her, training and now training her, he seemed at his limit. ‘’She has a point,’’ Sothis agreed, ‘’You could use some rest, Seteth, thank you for helping me heal up, but now you should probably get some rest yourself.’’

‘’Very well.’’ He sighed, either defeated or really unable to resist the temptation of a long awaited nap, ‘’I wouldn’t mind a small nap I shall go check on a few remaining things then will work on that, if anything goes wrong, please warn me.’’ That one was directed at her.

‘’He’s been really protective lately, huh?’’ Leonie turned to her, watching as Seteth walked away. ‘’It’s almost kinda funny considering how he flat out hated you a few months ago.’’

‘’I guess a lot has happened.’’

Leonie sighed, ‘’And a lot more will, which is why we are here. Ready?’’

After Sothis nodded, they each walked to the opposite ends of the training arena and took their stances, from what she could recall —without having to go through Byleth’s memories that is— Leonie used to favor lances and bow and arrows, but seemed like she at least knew her way around with a sword, considering how she twisted it in her hand to test the weight and balance.

‘’Alright, let’s get to work.’’

/-/

He walked inside the chapel —the place now empty, as most students and knights were either busy training or enjoying their last remaining days of peace— avoiding making noise to disturb her once he realized what she was doing.

Rhea stood on her knees, hands intertwined, eyes closed, in front of a beautiful statue of their mother, either unaware of his presence or not caring for it. Seteth’s footsteps echoing inside the chapel were finally enough to get her attention.

‘’Kind of pointless to pray for her anymore, is it not? You could just talk to her in person now.’’

‘’The result would be the same either way, she would just ignore me completely. At least in here I do not have to take her insults.’’

Seteth sighed, kneeling next to his sister, who finally turned to face him. Her eyes were red, either from crying in seclusion or just lack of sleep in general from preparing for the attack.

‘’So you just intend to avoid her until the attack? Hoping afterwards we will all miraculously get along? Or that one of you might die and spare the other the pain of having to talk this out?’’

‘’Seteth!’’ She glared at him, clearly upset at his words, ‘’I would not wish such thing… I… I just don’t know what to do, she made herself pretty clear, did she not? She wishes to never see me again, she hates me, rightfully so.’’

Seteth sighed, not giving into her stare, as he knew this conversation was something they had needed to have for a long time now. ‘’You know how mother is, she was always one to wear her heart on her sleeve, never hiding how she felt or trying to keep herself in control of her thoughts. Maybe it comes with being beyond mortal, after all, she would not need the nuances of keeping her emotions in check.’’

‘’I always found that to be so… Beautiful. As a Goddess she had no need to hide how she felt, why would she? She never had anything to keep secret, always a free spirit.’’

‘’And that is why whenever I go visit her, I can clearly see for a split second the disappointment on her face. Why would that be, Rhea?’’

Looking up, back to the statue, Rhea pondered for a few moments. ‘’I do not think I deserve her forgiveness, even if she were ready to give it.’’

‘’We are about to be attacked, Rhea, she will be fighting too, she has to. No one knows what will happen after the next week, so this might be all the time you two have. Not to make up entirely, but to at least talk.’’

‘’What am I to do, Cichol? You saw what she thinks of me… What I did…’’

Seteth did his best to bury his own frustrations and anger, they were still fresh considering it had just happened a month ago. ‘’You let your desperation get the better of you.’’

''I just... I wanted to see her again, I made the church as a way for people to love her, remember her, took down the ones who hurt her and removed their machines from history so no one could ever repeat the incident, I rewrote history itself to hide her undignified demise.''

They both stared at their mother’s statue again, a beautiful marble sculpture, showing her as an angelic young lady, clad in long robes flowing in the wind, with her arms open, welcoming all. It represented well Seiros’ unhealthy obsession with their mother, putting her on an unrealistic pedestal. Sothis was never an angelic, patient person, she was as human as anyone else, goddess or not, she had her flaws, she had a short temper, and would and could sometimes act childishly. But that was honestly what made her so good to be around, she wasn’t a divine being who stood above everyone, she was a curious, loving, well meaning woman.

Seiros erased all that to make her into a messianic figure who’d smite anyone who went against her, one who’d require you to beg for forgiveness regularly. The mere act of saying her name now was an insult.

''You sacrificed a lot, Seiros, the problem is, most of those sacrifices weren't your own.''

''I just wanted things to go back to the way they were, I missed her so much...''

''So did I, and I am glad to see her again, however, things will never be the way they were, no matter how hard you tried. By now you must realize you've crossed a line.''

She looked down, as if Sothis’ statue were judging her, staring at her very soul. ''Jeralt's child...''

''Your love for mother blinds you, Seiros, it always had. It made you lay waste to entire cities, lie and hide more secrets than any person could ever know, and perform... Unthinkable things.''

How long was she attempting to revive Mother? How many vessels were there? And what happened to them once they failed to achieve what she wished? Considering she had Sothis’ crest stone, the answer terrified him. There was so much about all of this he, her own brother, and closest ally, did not know. So many secrets she’d been keeping for centuries on and on.

''I can't even face her anymore, gods, I expected her to fully accept and embrace me as if we could just swept everything under the rug.''

''Rhea... Seiros... Why would you expect her to simply get over the death of someone dear when you yourself have not?''

The words were like a knife in her heart. It wasn’t his intention to hurt her, however this was needed. She needed to hear this.

''She's regretful of her own reactions at the time too, I can understand it, must have been overwhelming for her, too much going on.''

''At that moment, seeing her again, after all those centuries I... I felt like all the things I did were worth something, as if it wasn't just senseless destruction. Gods I even thought Byleth's sacrifice was a worthy price to pay.''

No wonder Sothis acted the way she did, no matter how much Seiros went through, no matter how much of her daughter’s struggles she was aware of, her first real view of the world was one of her closest family members happily celebrating the demise of her best friend. Seiros’ good intentions couldn’t bury all her sins, especially when she seemed unaware and uncaring of them. At the very least she was aware of that now.

''I'm glad to see you're coming back to your senses. It's been far too long, Seiros, it's time to finally let go.''

''Let go, huh...''

How long was she like that? When was the point where she crossed the line? When did she let her mad wishes take over her duty to protect Fódlan? Was it when Byleth came back with her hair changed and powers increased? When she first met Byleth? When she began the attempts to revive her mother in general? The creation of the Church of Seiros? Or was it back in that bloodstained battlefield, laying next to Nemesis’ corpse, hugging the bloodied blade made from her mother’s remains?

She did not know anymore, and was honestly afraid to look back and see all her atrocities with a new light now that she was aware of her own biases.

She sighed as she got up, Seteth soon following suit. ‘’It seems all I can do now is attempt to fix my current mistakes.’’

''The war then? Edelgard's hate is a direct response of this very issue. Will you still try to ''crush the sinners'' as you've said?''

''I don't think Edelgard will be open to communication anymore... She seemed aware of what we I did to Byleth somehow… We don't have a choice but to fight back, protect her. Once that is over, we'll see what we can do.''

‘’Protect her _and_ the students, you mean?’’

Rhea seemed absolutely mortified by her slip up, realizing how deep her bias seemed to go.

''Still wish to have her become the new leader of the Church?''

She chuckled, it was nothing but bitter and melancholic, but it was better than her constant stupor from the past days.

''Somehow I do not think she will accept it''

Seteth began walking away, as she turned back to the statue, averting her eyes from its gaze.

''Well, you clearly have much to think, I will leave you to it.''

/-/

She fell on the ground again, but this time, instead of being annoyed, she kept rolling to dodge an incoming strike, using the moment where Leonie had to reel back her sword to get up and shoulder tackle her, who managed to land a punch to her gut while still being hit.

They both were breathing heavily, Leonie using the sword to get up, and Sothis, not even holding her sword anymore, placing a hand on a pillar for support.

The orange haired girl’s fighting style was similar to Cichol’s but also different. Both focused on using their speed and movement to overcome their enemies, mostly using their own weight against them, and baiting people into leaving themselves open for strong strikes, Cichol’s was much more refined and proper, his way of baiting being just having more patience than the enemy, forcing them to grow desperate and rush ahead. Leonie’s was a lot more aggressive and in your face. She would strike first and would keep the heat, but most of the time, her openings were just baits, trying to trick the opponent into expecting her to be a violent berserker, when in reality, she was a hunter laying traps with every single move.

The only way to beat her was to be as aggressive, win in a war of attrition and play the same mind games as her, which was honestly perfect for Sothis, as it accommodated Byleth’s fighting style perfectly, allowing her to get the hang of it, finally.

Leonie was enjoying herself too, considering her loud laughter, as she sat down to drink some water. ‘’This is so much fun,’’ she said, between long gulps, ‘’It’s been a really long time since I got to fight someone with a similar style as mine, it really helps putting in perspective my strategies and attacks.’’

‘’I agree’’ she said, stretching herself and grabbing the sword from the ground where she dropped. ‘’It is helping me getting back on my feet after so long resting.’’

Leonie’s eyes flat out lit up, as she placed her canteen on the side of another pillar, outside the ring. ‘’I can see it! You’ve been recovering pretty quick, all you needed was a small push, and now every clash you become more and more difficult to fight, even if you’re getting more tired!’’

Sothis couldn’t help but smile, yes, she could feel the difference, right now, she was quickly learning how to fight as Byleth, and this body was so used to it that doing so was second nature. She was learning how to use it as best as she possibly could.

‘’Very well, ready for another round?’’

‘’Of course!’’

They both took their stances, Leonie however, had a grin to her face with left Sothis a bit concerned. As they dashed forward, their swords connected and disengaged just as quick, devolving into nothing but quick strikes and parries one after the other, every opening being carefully measured before being either ignored or taken advantage of, most of the time leading to another parry.

As Sothis attempted to slash at Leonie’s feet, she stepped on the sword, keeping it stuck on the ground, and attempted a downwards stab, which Sothis responded by quickly grabbing her sword arm, and using the impulse of getting up to head-butt her, forcing Leonie to give ground. However, as she went to catch her sword, and arrow struck the ground she was about to touch, Leonie having switched to a bow and arrow, which she somehow managed to keep hidden.

Unable to get her weapon back, and forced to remain dodging, Sothis kept thinking on how to get close to Leonie, desperately multitasking between figuring how to get the sword back, how to approach Leonie, and how to dodge every next shot.

However, it made her too distracted to notice Leonie’s trap, she was leading her to an arrow firmly placed on the ground, which Sothis ended up tripping on, leaving herself defenseless for the next strike.

On her way down, Sothis stretched her arm, desperately trying to grab her sword, but it was too far, even with the momentum that was currently throwing her into the ground.

But when she stretched her hand, an odd sensation passed by her arm, as her palm began to heat up.

Leonie just narrowly avoided the fireball thrown in her direction, mostly because she was just as surprised as Sothis.

‘’Wait you can fire spells?!’’

‘’I…I can…?’’

That was odd, she didn’t recall Byleth ever firing any spells, or having any knowledge of faith or reason magic, could this be her own powers influencing her body?

Her thoughts were cut off by Leonie panicking, she soon realized why, as one of the walls of the training grounds was on fire, thanks to her little discovery.

‘’I’ll uh, I’ll go get water!’’ the girl ran off, before Sothis could even get a word in. She tried using whatever newfound powers she had to make it go away, but nothing happened, seemed like she could fire the elemental spell but not fully control said element. Thankfully Leonie showed up with a bucket filled with water before it could spread any further, but leaving the wall with a big charred mark on it.

‘’I uh, wonder if anyone will notice it?’’ she asked, with a weak nervous smile.

/-/

Apparently everyone noticed it rather quickly, considering Cichol arrived not even ten minutes after the fire was under control. He allowed Leonie to go, and the girl did so, quickly leaving before the stern man changed his mind.

‘’I literally leave for a nap and when I wake up the monastery is on fire. Quite funny actually.’’

‘’I don’t know what happened, I panicked and then somehow launched a fire spell.’’ She said, staring at her own hand, trying to conjure it again, and to her surprise, succeeding, her palm erupting in flames with ease. ‘’See?’’

Cichol scratched his chin at it, somewhat surprised. ‘’Huh… It seems you are indeed influencing the body, you did use magic a lot back in the day, why it’s how some spells we still use today were passed down to mankind.’’

‘’Do you think I should focus on getting the hang of it? This would be good in the battlefield.’’

‘’I do, however, we would need someone to teach you, I’m not actually knowledgeable in this area. I’d ask Seiros, but…’’

They both winced, Cichol instantly regretting saying that. ‘’Oh, I know, I could ask Flayn, she’s been training it long enough to be able to help.’’

Sothis flat out beamed at the suggestion, Seteth raising his finger to calm her down ‘’BUT, please do not do anything… Odd. In her eyes you are her professor, if you act too close to her you might scare her.’’

‘’You say that as if I’m socially inept.’’

‘’You jumped off a window to escape a class of children.’’

‘’I had a good reason!’’ She huffed, crossing her arms and pouting, ‘’In any case, can we get on with it?’’

‘’Not today, I want you to take a full day to focus on that, otherwise it’d be a half hearted training session,’’ He said, walking around the now empty Training Hall, it was getting late, so most of the students were getting back to their room —the church having enforced a curfew, to avoid the children doing something stupid with the war that was coming— ‘’speaking of which, how was the training with Miss Pinelli?’’

‘’It went really well! I feel like I can actually fight now!’’

‘’Good, good, then, I think we can already start with the other thing you need to train.’’

He turned back to her, unpacking the box he was carrying, revealing the Sword of the Creator inside.

‘’Ah…’’

‘’If you’re not ready we can w-‘’

‘’No, no, I can do this, I _want _to do this.’’ She said, walking towards him.

She was surprisingly nervous looking at it, Cichol laid it in his hands, waiting for her to take it. So many bad memories kept surfacing just from looking at the blade, so much blood was shed with it, her own blood. The sword was the physical representation of her own brutal demise, butchered and having her remains desecrated to forge into a weapon. Her heart ripped off her chest and planted into its center, giving it power.

But that was the past now, her heart was back inside her chest —Byleth’s chest— and this sword was her best chance to fight off the Empire’s forces.

Finally taking it, she was surprised at how little it weighted, the thing looked like it’d be heavy given the size, but it was really nimble. It felt cold, and she could feel her hands shaking while holding it, gripping the blade harder so to stop the shaking.

‘’Well?’’

‘’This is feels weird.’’

‘’That’s to be expected considering its origins.’’

‘’Yeah, it feels like I’m holding my own spine. Probably going to feel even weirder when I have to stab people with it.’’

‘’Byleth could master it with ease, so I assume her skills with it are still there.’’

‘’Yeah well Byleth didn’t have to picture her own death every time she looked at this damned thing.’’ Sothis said, slashing the air with it to test its weight and balance. ‘’Alright, let me give this a try.’’

Taking a deep breath, she focused; she could feel her energy subconsciously being drawn by the sword, attracted to it, as if it knew it once was a part of her, an extension of her very being, now glowing with the power it had taken, almost sizzling from the heat it now released, but never harming the one holding it. With another thought, she blocked her power from being drawn into the sword, making it stop glowing entirely. Seemed like she could control the output of how much power the sword could have, depending on it, this could be the difference between a strike made to knock someone out, and a strike made to kill. Made sense, Byleth managed to train and spar with this thing without accidently killing anyone.

She sparred with Cichol, testing her training, checking how well used to it her body was, and it was surprisingly natural to her, almost automatically, she was able to perform powerful strikes, never putting too much strength into them, of course, showing her control of its power output, block incoming attacks, and dodge while keeping it in hand fairly easily.

‘’Now try detaching it.’’ Cichol said, walking out of the arena. ‘’The whip is one of its most devastating attacks, you should have it under control.’’

‘’You’re not going to be my opponent while I test it?’’

‘’With all due respect, mother, I’d prefer to be as far away from this thing, considering what it did to us.’’

Ah, that was right, Cichol probably had to see Nemesis using that whip to murder armies and armies of Nabateans, slaying countless lives in a pretty brutal fashion. Sothis couldn’t blame him, as she herself wasn’t enjoying this idea any more than he probably was.

With a deep breath, she looked at one of the training dummies, and allowed her power to flow into the blade, letting it fill the weapon, which made it glow even stronger. Once it was at a reasonable output, she stopped, not wishing to cause too much damage with it, as a whip would be harder to control than a sword. Psyching herself up, she slashed at the dummy from a distance, with a loud shout, expecting it to be utterly annihilated by the sword’s whip slash.

Which surprised her when all she did was slash the air, a hilariously long distance from the dummy, the sword never switching into the whip form.

‘’What the…’’ She kept swinging, again and again, looking less like she was handling the strongest weapon in Fódlan and more like she was trying to swat a fly.

‘’M-Mother please be careful!’’

‘’This stupid thing doesn’t want to work, what the heck!’’ She held it up, to inspect it. ‘’Maybe I’m not giving it enough power?’’ She stopped holding her energy back, feeding the sword as much as it could, until it reached its limit, and at that point, fed it even more; however, instead of breaking, like she half hoped it’d do, the Sword’s point sprung upwards, finally releasing the chain, and stabbing the roof of the training grounds, much to Cichol’s horror.

‘’Ah, so _that's _the trick!’’

‘’Uh, mother…’’

‘’Oh dear!’’ She said, pulling her power back, the sword stopped shining, but the chain was still released, and now stuck on the roof. ’’Cichol give me a hand here!’’ she kept trying to pull it out, to no avail, her son came to help, grabbing the pommel with her and pulling it down, finally doing so, and taking a piece of the roof, which thankfully didn’t cave in, with it.

Looking at the hole in the roof, and her sword, now weighting a lot more with the giant piece of wood stuck in it, she smiled apologetically to Cichol. ‘’W-Well at least now I know how to activate it, right?’’

‘’Are you sure?’’

‘’Yeah, just watch!’’

‘’W-Wait mother n-‘’

She allowed her power to flow into the sword again, overwhelming it until the chain clicked off again —and now it looked _even more _like a spine, which was a thought she pushed to the back of her head, really, that Nemesis was one messed up fellow— but this time kept powering it, so the whip form was still shining brightly; with a quick swing to adjust the balance, Sothis slashed at the dummy again, this time hitting it full on.

Too bad she forgot to remove the piece of the roof in the blade, which just exploded in contact with the dummy, shrapnel flying everywhere as a bug-eyed Cichol hid behind one of the pillars.

She looked around the training ground, splinters of wood everywhere, stabbing the walls and pillars, the roof with a huge hole in it and a wall charred, still smoking a bit.

‘’I uh… Oops?’’

Cichol glared at her, still hiding behind the pillar.

/-/

She could tell it was morning from the sun shining from the hole in the roof. Sothis spent most of her night training, with Cichol supervising her, and she was feeling exhausted but proud, she managed to figure out so much in such a short amount of time. Depending on how much she pushed energy into the sword, she could control the output of her power; more so, it applied to the whip too, depending on how much power she fed it, it would either just unlock the chain or make it spring up, like a speeding arrow; this would prove useful, she knew it.

Finishing up another dummy, she pulled back her power, the chain slowly pulling itself inside the sword, as she watched it, holding it upside down so the chain would be dangling until it was completely gone, which, once again, made it look disturbingly close to a spine.

‘’You know, whoever designed this thing had a pretty sick sense of humor. Why is it just _mine_ that looks like that?’’

‘’I wouldn’t know, maybe they only got inspired design wise once yours was done.’’ Cichol said, grimacing once he realized he was talking about the designs of weapons made from his siblings’ bones.

‘’Honestly this seems like a pain to use in general, if it weren’t for this body I’d take ages to figure this thing out, Nemesis was an idiot, I hope Seiros beat him up thoroughly.’’

Cichol’s grimace grew to an absurd proportion, as he remembered how Seiros’ fight with Nemesis went, ‘’Among other things.’’ He responded.

‘’So hey,’’ she said, turning to her son with a smile, ‘’Now that I managed this, can I go train with Flayn?’’

Cichol sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, ‘’Alright, I suppose you managed to get the hang of things, surprisingly quick too, and a new skill can never hurt. Just wait until she’s-‘’ He looked at his mother to find the place completely empty, Sothis had long left the second he agreed to it. ‘’-awake…’’

/-/

A quick trip to the bathhouse and a switch of clothes later, she was knocking on Flayn’s door, smiling like a loon.

_‘’Alright, calm down, it’s just your granddaughter… Oh my gods it IS my granddaughter, and she is adorable! With her fluffy hair, that round baby face, and that lovely smile, she is just the cut-’’_

‘’Y-Yes? Is someone there?’’

She choked the moment she heard the voice through the door, _‘’alright we’re doing this, we are doing this!’’_ she thought psyching herself up.

‘’H-Hey Flayn? It’s me, Byl- The professor. I was hoping I could ask your help for some training.’’

‘’Ah, Professor? Isn’t it a bit too early?’’

‘’Well you know how it is, I spent the last week and a half doing nothing but resting, so now I’m a bit sick of sleeping.’’

‘’I-I see, but why me specifically, professor? Surely there are plenty of early owls already at the training grounds.’’

‘’Indeed, but I want your help because I just discovered I can use magic.’’

The other side went silent for a moment. She could hear the girl scrambling for something inside her room, before slamming into the door, making her wince; and a split second later, quickly unlocking what sounded like several locks on the door.

Finally opening, she saw her granddaughter, hair still messy, face still looking sleepy and clothes clearly put on in haste, but her expression showed some excitement. ‘’You can _what_?!’’

‘’Yes! I discovered yesterday in the training ground, isn’t that incredible?’’

‘’That is surprising, maybe there really WERE more changes than your hair.’’

She managed to hide the wince, Flayn had no idea.

‘’Y-yes, Seteth suggested for me to ask your help in figuring it out.’’

‘’I see, it would be my pleasure professor, after all you already did so much for us!’’ The reminder would’ve hurt her in any other situation, however the mere sight of her granddaughter beaming at her with such positive attitude made her ignore everything else. ‘’Should we go to the training grounds?’’ She asked, breaking Sothis out of her adoration as she remembered the state she left the place.

‘’I… Do not think we would be able to use it, last I heard… S-Someone had made a mess of the place.’’

‘’Really? Such a shame, some people have no respect for the Monastery, clearly.’’

Sothis gulped ‘’Indeed, so uh, should we go somewhere else?’’

‘’There are some open fields close to the monastery; it is where the Knights go to train. While the Archbishop would usually require supervision when leaving because of the current state of things, we wouldn’t have to worry, as we’d have the knights there already.’’

‘’I see, pretty clever!’’ She said, giving her brilliant granddaughter a thumbs up and then motioning for her to take the lead. ‘’Well lead the way.’’

The green haired girl took charge, taking Sothis to outside of the walls, warning the gatekeepers of their intent to go train and confirming there are in fact knights outside on the field training already, giving them leeway to go there without needing an escort.

The walk was mostly silent, Sothis wishing to talk more to her granddaughter but unsure how to approach considering she isn’t aware of their connection.

‘’So…’’ She looked around, hoping something would give her enough inspiration for a conversation starter, but sadly trees aren’t the best subject for engaging conversations with family. ‘’How are you holding up?’’ She tried, wincing at how desperate and plain the attempt sounded.

‘’Oh, I am doing well, given the circumstances, I have been helping the staff and the knights where I could, though father doesn’t really like me working much, it is still better than leaving him doing all the work. Beyond that, it is mostly training or spending time with the class.’’

‘’You’re doing a great thing Flayn, just don’t overdo it.’’

‘’Oh Goddess, you are starting to sound just like my father you know.’’

She chuckled, ‘’guess I spent a little bit too long around him during my time of illness, but I do understand your point, he can be a bit overbearing at times.’’

‘’Besides that, I haven’t been doing much; I’d ask how you have been doing, but this is your second day outside the room, not counting that small incident, is it not?’’

‘’Pretty much, I spent all of yesterday just training and getting back to business. However there’s still a lot of work to do.’’

‘’You should not overdo it either, you know.’’ She gave a small chuckle, pushing a small branch out of the way, revealing a clearing where several knights, and some students too, were already there, training and chatting. ‘’We are here.’’

‘’Hopefully I won’t set the forest on fire.’’ Sothis mumbled, still remembering the first time she used her fire spell. Upon reaching the clearing, a blonde knight who was chatting with a few others noticed them and made her way towards the duo.

‘’Professor, good to see you’re finally back in action. Came here to get some training done? And what about you Flayn? Seteth does know you’re here right?’’

Flayn pouted and glared at the knight, the most adorable thing possible, Sothis thought, and she was glad Flayn’s attention was on the knight as she didn’t notice the goddess smiling, trying her best not to gush. ‘’Yes, Catherine, I warned the gatekeeper I was heading out, contrary to what my brother believes, I do not need constant supervision you know.’’

As the knight laughed, Sothis recollected, Catherine, the knight who had that powerful sword, Thunderbrand, a Heroes Relic. Back then she didn’t think much of it, but now she knew exactly what it was. Thankfully, Catherine did not seem to have it in hand at the time, using training swords with the other soldiers and students.

‘’We are here to do some training, indeed, it seems I have a knack for magic, as it turns out, and I asked Flayn to help me figure it out.’’

‘’Oh? That’s pretty great actually, you could have a ranged option without having to carry any extra weapons, just in case that fancy sword of yours doesn’t do the trick.’’

Looking around, Sothis noticed some of the Golden Deer class among the students training. Meanwhile, of the Blue Lions, she only saw a blonde haired boy, who was a bit further than everyone, training alone, with a scowl on his face. ‘’Seems like it is pretty crowded in here.’’

Catherine laughed and slapped her in the back, almost making her fall over. ‘’Well of course! There’s a war coming, and everyone is doing their best to fight the Empire.’’

‘’Us included!’’ said Flayn, proudly putting her hands on her waist, ‘’I’ve been helping the knights and the professor hasn’t stopped training ever since she woke up.’’

‘’That’s great to hear, I’ll be counting on you to get back at those traitors.’’ Catherine’s eyes gained a dangerous edge to them once she finished the sentence, ‘’I swear I will make that brat pay for insulting the goddess like she did.’’

Ah… Right

They were all prepared to fight and kill in her name. All the people here were stern followers of her, or at least an idolized rigid version of her.

‘’I don’t know where she got in her head that she could fight us off, but trust me when I say it, professor, in the name of the goddess, we will strike down the sinners who dared to insult her name like that!’’

She said it in such a proud tone, but it felt so wrong, it was as if what mattered most was less the protection of all of those in the monastery and more defending Sothis’ honor, even if she didn’t wish nor care for such. All of these people were fanatically believing she wished them to murder all of those who opposed her. They were ready to kill in her name.

She never asked for any of that.

Catherine’s boasting stopped once she realized Sothis’ expression. ‘’Oh, I… I’m sorry professor, I forgot some of those were your students… I know it must be real tough for you.’’

‘’Y-Yeah, but what matters most is protecting the people, correct?’’

‘’Well of course,’’ Catherine answered, Sothis’ smile returning a bit,

_‘’Maybe I am just exaggerating, they wouldn’t be THAT bad, Seiros wouldn’t let it get like that.’’_

‘’We will always protect the devout believers of the church, that is our duty just as much as it is to take down the heretics.’’

_‘’Nevermind that, everyone here is a freaking lunatic.’’_

/-/

Claude approached the prince, who ever since finding out about Edelgard’s true colors, showed his too. He always knew there was something odd with Dimitri, he is no stranger to hiding behind a mask, pretending to be someone you are not to fit in. But Dimitri’s case seemed bad even then; his mask seemed more like he was forcing himself to remain calm and stable, like it was him desperately clinging to his own sanity, hoping to keep all those ugly emotions locked inside, with small cracks where his demons would leak out.

Thing is, just like the Flame Emperor’s back in the holy tomb, that mask had shattered, and everything flooded out instantly. He’d like to say the Dimitri they knew was gone, but he was never there to begin with, it was simply an attempt to hide the conflict that was happening inside him.

Right now, the man looked barely human, methodically training, swinging his spear around with precision and strength, never speaking or making eye contact with anyone, never taking any breaks and only stopping when his spear broke, not from being overused, but clearly from Dimitri’s grip, only to be thrown into a pile and replaced with another.

‘’You should probably drink some water, or at some point you’re just gonna collapse.’’

‘’I’m not in the mood to talk, Claude.’’

He sighed, ‘’Do the Blue Lions know you’re here?’’

‘’They are training together, I’m here because otherwise they wouldn’t allow me to train with them.’’

‘’Because you’ve been doing nothing _but_ training, correct?’’

He finally turned to face Claude, his eyes were bloodshot and the skin around them blackened, his hair messier than ever and his skin pale. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days. ‘’Why wouldn’t I? _She _is coming here soon, I do not want to give her another chance to escape. I had my shot and I missed it, she was right there, I could’ve avenged them all, but she slipped from my fingers like the miserable snake she is.’’

‘’Dimitri…’’

His voice was cracking, he could barely contain the anger in his tone, ‘’Next time I see her, I will not let her escape, Oh, I will grab her by the neck and only release my grip once the life has left her eyes.’’

‘’Why are you so sure she is the one behind it all?’’

The spear Dimitri was holding cracked in four different pieces, Claude almost felt compelled to just running away, picturing the same being done to him, but stood his ground.

‘’What did you say?’’

‘’Don’t think I didn’t notice, Dimitri, you’ve been rambling about it for days now, you think she’s behind the Tragedy of D-‘’

‘’She _is _behind it!’’ Dimitri closed the distance in an instant, grabbing Claude by the collar. ‘’She left us for the Empire, I never saw her again, then the tragedy happened, and now she is here, backed up by that fiendish group, and heir to the Empire. How long do you think she has been working with them, Claude? Why would she leave like that? I will tell you why, because she was behind it all, she and her sickening brethren. ’’

‘’Wouldn’t she just be a child when it happened?’’ Claude said, hoping the knights would stop Dimitri if he tried something; some were already beginning to notice them.

‘’As if that changes anything, evil has no age.’’

‘’Why blame Duscur?’’

‘’Subjugating if not outright destroying foreign lands isn’t anything new for the Adrestian Empire, ask Bridgit. Only this time they made us do the dirty work’’ He spat, releasing Claude, who finally managed to breathe properly again, and turning back to his spot, grabbing another spear.

‘’That’s it? That’s all you got to reach that conclusion?’’

Dimitri did not answer, continuing his training routine.

‘’Do you believe it’s her, or is that just what you want, Dimitri?’’

The spear cracked again.

‘’Leave, Claude.’’

Shaking his head, Claude walked away, giving up.

As he made it back to his spot, he noticed some new faces, including the Professor and Flayn, who were mostly standing around discussing something.

‘’Teach, back in action once again, huh?’’

‘’Oh hello there, Claude!’’ Flayn responded, her smile as bright as ever, while the professor just gave him a quick nod, focused on whatever she was doing. Noticing her lack of weapons, he raised an eyebrow. ‘’Training some hand to hand combat? Don’t think Flayn would be the best partner for that.’’

‘’I’m training my magic skills, which I apparently have now.’’ The professor said, turning to him, revealing a fireball floating in her palm. ‘’Flayn is helping me figure out just how much I can do right now.’’

‘’Magic? Really? Well, you’re a constant well of surprises, aren’t you teach? Have you been studying some strategies too? I’ve been meaning to discuss some before the attack.’’

‘’I haven’t had much time for it yet, but I’m all ears.’’

Grinning, Claude got closer to her, now that he the professor’s full attention. ‘’See, I was thinking if we could use the gambit we had discussed for the fight against Kronya? The one involving Raphael and Marianne, do you remember?’’

She stopped for a second to stare at him, clearly wracking her brain trying to remember it. ‘’Y-Yes, of course, I remember it.’’ Claude tried to keep his smile from growing smug, but didn’t succeed much.

Jackpot

‘’Wait what Gambit, Claude? I do not recall any plans involving Marianne and Raphael.’’

‘’Ah, I must have mixed things up then, apologies, it’s been a long couple of months, you know, right teach?’’ He said, his small probing attempt discovered.

‘’This isn’t the time for more of your jokes’’ she responded, pouting, Professor Byleth, _pouting_. If that wasn’t signaling something was really wrong here he didn’t know what did. Maybe they were all going to die after all. Well, now the teacher would be on guard for whatever he asked, so he doubted he’d be able to get much more out of this.

‘’Alright, alright sorry, I’ll go back to training, unless you want some help?’’

‘’Depends, we could use a moving practice target.’’

And with that he was already on his way out, he’d had one near death experience with Dimitri, and that was enough for the day.

/-/

The days passed rather quickly, she barely noticed it; being constantly busy would do that. Whenever she wasn’t training with the Sword of the Creator —which never stopped feeling just plain wrong— training her magic, now also getting some help from other students, like Mercedes and Marianne, or studying strategies and revising plans with Claude or Seteth, she spent her, admittedly short, free time with the kids. Neither of them had much energy left to do anything considering their constant race to get as much training and rest as possible in these two weeks, but it was still nice to just be around them, even if the subjects discussed were uninteresting. It felt good to be surrounded by children again.

Sothis entered the stables, not the one for horses, but the one for Wyverns, kept in a different spot, closer to the tower, as it wouldn’t do to mix horses and wyverns of all things in the same place. Seteth was there, feeding his personal Wyvern, petting him as he ate, with a soft smile in his face. ‘’So how was the training today?’’

‘’It was okay’’ she sat on one of the benches in the area, ‘’Marianne helped me with some faith magic. Mostly healing and support stuff.’’

‘’Sounds like you didn’t enjoy it.’’

‘’It’s not that, it’s…’’ She looked away, sighing, ‘’She’s a great kid, although I wish she would stop beating herself up so much.’’

‘’But?’’

‘’But she was asking herself if the goddess was punishing her, if her suffering was a result of the divine Sothis having a grudge against her. Is that… Is that what people think I am like?’’

Seteth turned around, walking away from his still eating wyvern, to sit beside his mother. ‘’Rhea wished to prevent what happened to repeat itself, so she planted the idea the goddess was not one to be challenged. I can see why she would wish to do that, to prevent anyone from even thinking of striking you ever again, making you seem like an invincible being who would smite anyone who would even consider hurting you. But as you can see, the idea wasn’t very good in the long run.’’

‘’I never asked anyone to fight or kill for me, I would never wish for that.’’

‘’I know, mother.’’

‘’Does everyone really see me as an unforgiving monster? Someone who’d judge and curse you for life? People are afraid of even saying my name, it’s always just ‘’The Goddess’’, never my actual name.’’ She looked down, to her hands, Byleth’s hands. ‘’People pray for me but not to ask for blessings or good will, but to beg forgiveness and confess sins, as if that’s all I am, a ruthless hateful goddess.’’

Seteth could only place a hand on her shoulder, as she silently sulked, he had no answer or solution, Rhea had firmly placed that image of Sothis into everyone’s minds for centuries and centuries, undoing that would not be a simple feat, much less in their current situation.

His wyvern, having finished eating, tilted his head in confusion, noticing Sothis, and moving towards her, nuzzling her hair, making her actually chuckle a bit. ‘’H-hey, stop it, I don’t… I don’t… Pft… Alright alright!’’ Sothis got up from the bench and began petting it, the wyvern closing his eyes enjoying it very much. Seteth couldn’t help but smile at the scene. ‘’You always were good with wyverns, were you not?’’

‘’They’re such beautiful creatures.’’

Their peaceful moment was cut short by a knight desperately opening the door, completely out of air, as if he had just sprinted from the other side of the monastery. ‘’Seteth, Professor Byleth! Lady Rhea is looking for you!’’

Seteth sprung up from the bench in an instant. ‘’What is going on?’’

‘’It’s the Adrestian army, Sir, they’re here!’’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sure everything will go just fine.  
This chapter was pretty difficult to write. Mostly because of the size, I almost considered splitting it up in two shorter chapters but it'd be two chapters with barely any progress considering it's Sothis mostly making up for the time lost and setting up future things.  
On a sidenote, I'm surprised no one called me out for just having Sothis going ''well I'm done being sick now, gotta fight''. in the last chapter.  
I'd also like to address some people from the comments, worried this fic will add minimal changes to the canon. It won't, I want to do a lot more than that, it is called ''Divine Intervention'' for a reason, after all, Sothis' active role in here will change things, as she is a very different character from Byleth, for better or worse remain to be seen. Also doesn't help I didn't update the tags, I kinda planned on updating it as the cast shows up but keep forgetting, plus I don't wanna give away everything through them.  
Next chapter will probably take a week or two to get done because I plan on covering the entire fight for Garreg Mach in it and let me tell ya, stuff will GO DOWN there. That and I suck at writing fights as you no doubt can tell.


	5. To War

They were all reunited on the main cathedral, students, staff and knights, all in one cramped space, Seiros, or Rhea, at before them all, instructing everyone and attempting to ease the panic.

With… Mixed results, given the Empire’s army was quite literally at their doorstep. People obviously didn’t dare to talk back to Rhea, but there were few who didn’t look nervous with everything that was going on, and even fewer dissuaded by the speech.

‘’Rest assured that our time preparing for this was not wasted, my children, we have worked tirelessly to organize and plan for every possible outcome in this battle. We _will _survive this storm, believe in the goddess and she will reward your trust, be the sword and shield that will fight for her name and you shall be rewarded.’’

Sothis lowered her head upon hearing that, Seiros really wasn’t planning on stopping with that, was she? Didn’t help they had no chance to speak after that initial outburst, as her daughter was avoiding her in every possible way.

‘’Everyone please follow your teachers, they will lead you to your proper areas. Protect the monastery as best as you can, follow your instructor’s orders and look after each other no matter what. May the Goddess watch over us all.’’

She would be doing more than watching.

As Rhea watched with a smile on her face, her mask of a benevolent Archbishop as flawless as ever, the students swarming the cathedral slowly left the place in groups, led by either a teacher or a knight, the Blue Lions were being led by an older looking man with glasses, Hanneman, Byleth’s body reminded, as the name flashed in Sothis’ thoughts. however the blonde house leader, Dimitri, was nowhere to be seen.

The Golden Deer were following her, looking anxious and nervous, with good reason of course. Claude was casually catching up to her instead of just following, as usual, with his disarming smile, which looked a bit more strained than usual.

‘’Teach, I wanted to speak with you, about the division of the army.’’

‘’Is something wrong with it? The Archbishop was rather clear with the instructions.’’

Claude sighed, ‘’Yeah, I know, and I don’t mean to disagree with her, not within an earshot of the Knights of Seiros, that is, but;’’ He looked around, as if expecting people to be eavesdropping. ‘’The Archbishop plans on taking part in the strike, stay behind the frontlines and fight alongside us, surrounded by her own guard of course.’’

She knew that, it was part of the plan, although a small part of her was worried for Seiros, she quickly remembered her daughter not only was far better trained in combat than she herself was, but that Seiros was able to defeat Nemesis, so Edelgard would be nothing compared to her, if she even managed to reach her.

‘’Which is why I wanna make a… Small alteration on the plan.’’

‘’You want to go against the Archbishop’s orders.’’

He put a finger in front of his mouth making a shush noise to her, ‘’_Shhh_ teach, I like my head where it is!’’ Looking around again and seeing no one listening, the class itself being too lost in their own chats, he turned back to her, ‘’Look, we know Edelgard’s target is Rhea, she’s the head of the Church, which Edelgard made no effort to hide her hate of.’’ That and her hate of Sothis herself, but she couldn’t really tell him that without having to explain why. ‘’Which is why I think, considering the place’s architecture, she will try for a triple pincer attack, one group attacks on the left, one on the right, and one at the center.’’

‘’Rhea’s plan considered that, it’s why we’re on the right and the Blue Lions on the left.’’

‘’Indeed, but here’s the thing, Edelgard wants to make a show of her strength, so I doubt she will attempt an attack from the sides, which means she and her main force…’’

Sothis hummed, ‘’Will strike from the front, tearing their way straight into Rhea, while the groups at the side distract the other armies and possibly provide cover for the army in the center…’’

The army led by Cichol, she thought. He’d be right on Edelgard’s crosshairs, and as a loyal member of the church, she would show him no mercy. ‘’So what do you suggest?’’

‘’Rhea already placed herself as bait, like it or not, and I doubt we can discourage her of it. However, considering the current plan, I can’t help but feel the sides are overprotected, while the center is left vulnerable. The knights will be there, along with Cyril and Seteth, yes, but they’ll go headfirst with Edelgard’s main forces and whatever else she has up her sleeves.’’

‘’You want me in the center.’’

‘’Bingo!’’ he winked, ‘’If you’re there, then that’s a massive boost in strength, and it will allow the knights to hold the ground much easier, not to mention increase their morale.’’

‘’What about your class? That would leave you vulnerable.’’

‘’That’s why I’m passing this idea to you first, I want you to talk to Rhea, suggest it to her, since she always listens to you’’ Sothis froze, ‘’With you doing the talking I’m sure she will agree, unlike me, who would probably just end executed minutes before the big battle, in the lamest death possible.’’

Talking to Seiros, huh? Maybe it was the time after all. They were about to go into battle, and the fate of all Fódlan was lying in the result of this fight, no one knew what would happen, and this was possibly their last chance to speak.

‘’I’ll do it.’’ Sothis said, ‘’But I’ll have another instructor with your class just in case.’’

‘’Fine by me,’’ Claude said, oddly more relaxed, ‘’and hey, look at the bright side, if we manage to cut through the armies on all sides, we turn the tables, and perform a triple pincer on Edelgard herself. I can already see the look on her face.’’

Sothis couldn’t help but chuckle, the picture of the one they’ve been dreading for so long wide eyed and panicking at her own plan going against her. ‘’I’ll go speak to her this instant, you all get in position and wait for a new instructor.’’

Claude made an exaggerated salute motion. ‘’Yes sir.’’

This is it then, time to go see Seiros, time to get this sorted out once and for all.

/-/

‘’So what did you wish to share with me, mother? Things are a bit hectic right now.’’

‘’I know, but it’s a small oversight I noticed in the plan that I wish to see fixed.’’

‘’An oversight?’’ Her child hummed, ‘’Well feel free to share, I did not expect us to have left anything out of question like that, but perhaps we needed some outside look into things.’’

Sothis proceeded to explain Claude’s idea, and his plan, adding the suggestion of a new instructor to the Golden Deer, and explaining how with three focused groups of equal strength, they held a better chance of turning the tables.

‘I see… I can’t help but agree, we were so focused on being on the defensive that we did not even consider responding with a better attack, it seemed too risky. However a simple change like that would even the groups enough for a better chance at turning the tables with little to no risk to our own defenses.’’ Sothis smiled, this was easier than she thought, ‘’However… Shouldn’t you be telling this to Rhea instead of me?’’

She failed to meet Cichol’s eyes, a bit ashamed.

‘’Mother…’’

‘’I wanted to but… Look, I don’t think we can do this now, not this late!’’

‘’Then when?’’

‘’I… I don’t know, Cichol, all I know is that the last thing she needs is _more_ pressure on her shoulders in the middle of a war.’’

Her son sighed at her, she could feel his frustration, and she couldn’t really defend herself, she was being a coward. ‘’Just answer me then, do you hate Seiros?’’

‘’I… I don’t know… I am still upset at her, very upset…

‘’But…?’’

But she’s been suffering for centuries now, all alone and with no one to keep her from straying from her path, and of course, a loyal cult that would bend backwards over her every wish sure did not help at all.’’

It was such a conflicting feeling, on one hand, she knew and could understand how Seiros ended the way she did, she felt nothing but sorrow and pity at her daughter, she didn’t WANT to see her like that, she wanted to help her, to forgive and give her back what she had lost so long ago, what she had been yearning for centuries to the point of madness.

However, she had seen, _lived _through the results of Seiros’ madness, it didn’t feel right to simply forgive and move on, Seiros needed to see her mistake and at least pay for what she did wrong, perhaps if they were rational, they could have discussed this with her, asked her to work towards undoing the harm she had done to the land now that she got what she wanted, and release the people from the grasp she had held for so long.

However, neither were in position of being rational right now, that was the problem, was Seiros regretful of her actions? Yes, Cichol had told her just as much; but to what extent? Was she accepting her mistakes a sign of her realizing what she had done and slowly snapping out of it, or is it just herself trying to appease to her mother? Seiros could very well be punishing herself not because she understood the full extent of her actions, but because Sothis told her what she did was wrong. She needed time, more time to let it all sink in, otherwise she would never change, she would remain unhinged and then if something ever happened to Sothis again, she would break, maybe for good this time.

And Sothis herself was still too upset with her over Byleth, how could she not? It hasn’t even been a full month, of which time she spent almost all of it being reminded of her friend who Seiros so easily disposed of for her own selfish wish.

Sothis knew that deep down she was also afraid, once more being too much of a coward to confront the consequences of her resurrection. Just like she was unable to reveal to everyone what had truly happened.

Cichol was staring at her, as if he could read her thoughts, or perhaps simply read her expressions, she was never one to hide her emotions very well.

‘’I cannot force you to forgive her,’’ he started, realizing she wouldn’t speak, ‘’Seiros has betrayed your trust, no matter her reasons. To simply put you two together would make things worse.’’

They walked out of the Cathedral, she had cornered him once he was done talking to a few knights, giving some final instructions, now they were walking towards what would soon be the battlefield. From the distance, she could see the Empire’s army, a sea of red, only broken by what seemed like Demonic Beasts, both on the ground and flying, still marching towards the monastery and about to meet the first line of defense. Edelgard wouldn’t break into Garreg Mach so easily.

Once they were out in the open, they stopped discussing such matters, as others could hear them now, instead making their way to the region on the right, protected by the Golden Deer.

‘’Yo Teach! How did m-I mean, how did your plan go?’’

‘’Pretty well, instead of executed you’ll just be excommunicated for questioning Lady Rhea.’’ She jested, Claude laughed, it was a bit forced, possibly so the others would join in too, and they did, giving some morale to the tense students. ‘’It went fine, Seteth agreed to have Manuela on your side of things, not like she has a class to take care of with the Black Eagles having defected.’’

Wrong choice of words, as everyone stopped laughing, the mood once again getting tense.

_‘’Good one, you fool’’_

Seteth coughed, turning to Flayn, who was already in position, staying back with Marianne as the support mages of the area, while Lysithea was a bit further ahead, to focus on attacks, soon to be joined by Manuela.

‘’Flayn, it’s time I take my position, so I won’t be able to watch over you. Please, be careful.’’ Seteth said, keeping his mask of diligence up for all the five seconds he was able to, before closing in for a hug, which surprised even Flayn, considering her little _‘’oof’_’ as she was pulled into it. ‘’I know you’re more than capable of defending yourself, but I will not ever stop worrying about you, please, stay safe.’’

She gave a small smile and wrapped her small arms around him, ‘’You too… Brother. Do not dare falling here, or I will never forgive you.’’

‘’I won’t, that’s a promise.’’ He said, releasing her from the hug and turning to Claude. ‘’And you, Flayn is safer here, with the peers she has been training and working with. Because of that reason alone I allowed her to stay here. So Mr. Riegan, please, keep my sister safe no matter what.’’

Claude smiled, a much softer and honest one, instead of his usual one, before placing a hand on Seteth’s shoulder. ‘’Don’t worry Seteth, I would die before letting anything happen to her or anyone else here, for that matter.’’

Seteth for his part, chuckled, not at all bothered by the casual attitude. ‘’With all due respect Claude, I would rather you all returning back alive.’’

‘’Then you’ll be glad to know that’s the plan we’ll stick to.’’ He turned to her soon after, ‘’And you Teach, be careful out there. Don’t be too late to the reunion at the center or you might miss the look on Edelgard’s face.’’

‘’I wouldn’t miss that for anything in this world.’’

Saying her farewell to the other students, and a quick nod to Manuela as she soon joined them, Sothis followed Seteth into position. The man couldn’t help but look back at his daughter as she was being instructed by Manuela and Claude.

‘’She will be fine, Seteth,’’ Sothis said, placing a hand on his shoulder, gently pushing him to their area, ‘’Byleth trained them well, all of them.’’

Her son sighed, allowing all frustrations and agony to slip away from his expression, as he made his way to his Wyvern, being kept in their zone, quietly waiting for its master. ‘’Very well, let us end this quick so I can stop having to worry about her and finally get a good night of sleep, shall we?’’

Sothis nodded as he walked away, staying in her position and facing the entrance, where she could see the fighting had already started at the frontlines.

‘’So this is it then, bring it on, Edelgard.’’

/-/

They were about to march back into the monastery, army in tow. The first strike had served it’s purposed and opened a path for the main forces to begin the invasion properly. Edelgard saw the structure from afar, getting closer in the distance as they walked back to it; a beautiful exterior hiding all sorts of horrifying atrocities. That lying snake of an archbishop has been keeping Fódlan in the dark for too long, worse of all, keeping the barbaric ridiculous system that ruined her life.

More than that, once again, because of Rhea, a person Edelgard cared for paid a painful price. This time directly thanks to her. She saw the moment Professor Byleth's eyes changed, the light in it faded, giving place to SOMETHING else. She had seen that scene before, at least eleven times, images that repeatedly haunt her at night to this day. Looking straight into those eyes and not seeing Byleth in them anymore shook her to her very core. She had failed, once again, they had taken something from her and she was powerless to change it. And to make it worse, it was the one person she felt she could truly connect to.

Byleth was like her, a soul struggling to keep what little humanity she had left, she could tell, everyday how she struggled to show emotions, to act like others did, to seem HUMAN. Edelgard was the same, it wasn't wrong to say she had died back at that surgery table all those years ago, that what she saw in the mirror now was nothing but the ambers of what once was a full life. They were alike, more than Byleth ever found out; and more than she ever would, regretfully. Even now she wondered if Byleth would've sided with her, heard her side of the story, join her cause once she realized what truly happened to her.

But Edelgard was too slow. She got there just in time to witness the last shred of humanity that Byleth had, the very thing she was fighting every day, every _second _to keep, ripped away from her. Rhea took everything from Byleth, just like those who slither in the dark did to Edelgard, but unlike her, Byleth would never live to try and reclaim what she had lost. And even now, her body was being desecrated, a mere mockery of what she once was, hosting heavens knows what. That _parasite _was pretending to be her, lying to the people she loved, and using them to further her schemes, once again not unlike the ones who made Edelgard who she is now.

''Our troops are ready'' Hubert said, standing next to her. ''Our intel says _it _is going to be fighting too.''

''So Rhea's puppet is protecting her, not surprising, she turned Byleth into her weapon, then stripped her of free will. She got what she wanted, another weapon.''

Just like she hid the Sword of the Creator inside the Mausoleum, just like she hid thousands of Crest Stones inside the Holy Tomb, now Rhea had another weapon hidden in plain sight. One who could twist the minds of several innocent children who knew no better. One who could _kill _them without batting an eye. Perhaps that they will face off today is nothing but fate. Both were weapons created by the two factions commanding Fódlan from the shadows, stripped of their free will and forced to become inhuman creatures for power.

They were the culmination of the war between Those who slither in the dark and the Church of Seiros, their best attempts at creating the perfect solution for the secret war that has been happening in Fódlan for so long. It was a scary reflection for Edelgard, she who had been fighting so hard to keep her soul, just witnessed the one person who was like her losing it all. It could've so easily been her. It still can be her.

That's why she must finish this quickly, before her fate catches up to her and her work is left half done.

''Keep the strike force on the outer walls, I do not want them to see that parasite and think I lied to them. Much less interact with any other student.'' That would be difficult but it was necessary, it was too early for them to be able to fight their friends to death, especially when they knew these people had nothing to do with what had happened. Moreover, if they were to talk, the students fooled by that parasite could very well tell the others ''the professor'' is alive.

''What of us, Lady Edelgard?''

''We shall go in there ourselves with our squadron and the assistance of Demonic Beasts. You on one side, the Death Knight and his squadron on another, and finally me at the center tearing my way through to Rhea; I redirected my personal squadron to join in the fight, instead of wasting time protecting me. Hopefully we’ll converge at the front door of the monastery, where she will be waiting for us. We kill every knight who stands in our way but let go of those who just wish to run away, students or civilians. We have three main objectives. Take down the monastery, capture Rhea, and...''

''Yes?''

She looked forward, axe in hand, shield on the other, as she prepared herself mentally for what she was about to do.

''Recover the corpse of our professor to give it a proper burial.''

/-/

It had started.

Sothis really shouldn’t be surprised, she knew it was coming, but she still felt nervous as the armies approached. Looking back, she saw Seiros surrounded by knights, Catherine at her left, wielding Thunderbrand, and Cyril to her right, riding a Wyvern. Also riding one, right in front of her, was Cichol, leading the charge. She herself was using a normal sword, while the sword made from her remains was safely strapped to her belt, she didn’t wish to use it while surrounded by allies, she didn’t trust herself to not accidently hurt someone.

‘’Stay steady everybody, do not let yourselves be caught by your emotions.’’ He rallied, ‘’They will charge at us, let them do so, our projectiles shall dwindle their numbers and from there we shall strike.’’

A wave of soldiers finally breached the front gates of Garreg Mach, splitting into three, just like Claude had figured. It was too far for her to see who was leading which charge, so she couldn’t see if Edelgard was there. But she didn’t have time for it as the enemy battalions charged for them.

Just as Cichol had declared, the mages and long distance fighters did their jobs, spells, arrows, javelins and throwing axes all flew, as bodies fell to the ground and were promptly crushed by the ones behind them, who couldn’t stop the charge.

And that was their own demise, as said charge led them into the knights in the frontlines, who had enough time to prepare a full swing of their respective weapons and strike the soldiers, who were unable to stop their own momentum.

And so the two armies clashed, and Sothis was in the middle of it.

She quickly ducked; avoiding a slash aimed at her throat, and responded with a diagonal cut aimed with precision at the soldier’s neck, slitting it open, blood flowing freely as the man’s face twisted in horror.

‘’oh…’’

Sothis froze, watching him fall, dead instantly. Some of the blood had sprayed on her hand, she kept staring at it, unmoving in the middle of the chaos that was the fight.

‘’I… Killed him.’’ She muttered, realizing that she had never done such thing before, not even when the Agarthans challenged her. It was an odd feeling, deep down she felt horrified, the man’s eyes were still in her memory but… Physically she felt fine, Byleth’s body already desensitized with killing in cold blood.

Which somehow made it worse for her; she knew Byleth was a killer, heck; she had helped her several times in battle, allowing her to take the best chance to kill her enemies with great precision. But even then it felt distant and uninvolved. She gave Byleth the means to win, however she did that was her own weight to deal with.

But now Sothis had taken a life, a life she had blessed the land with. All around her, the very life she made sprout from the land was being taken, blood spilling like wine in a feast, people taking joy and pride in brutally, painfully taking away the sanctity of life from their fellow brothers, and why? Because they had different banners? They followed different masters?

A fireball cut off her thoughts, hitting her in the back and throwing her on the ground, making her lose her sword. Instincts flared as she rolled, dodging another fireball, picking her sword of the creator, and pointing it at the man, forcing her energy into it to eject the point, aimed at their chest.

The man realized what was about to happen, as his eyes widened. Sothis hesitated, seeing the horror in the man’s face as he realized she was going to kill him.

‘’I can’t do this, I can’t…’’

The man took the chance to fire a Bolganone at her, surrounding the ground in a circle of fire, which exploded, Sothis barely managing to escape it, her leg still struck by some of the fire.

He prepared another spell, this time she couldn’t run with her wounded leg.

As the circle formed, all she could think about was her children, being slaughtered one by one by Nemesis, being defenseless at his hands as he and his armies hazed their homes. Right now the same was happening to Byleth’s students. And her remaining family; Cethleann was out there fighting, protecting her home and father, Cichol was out there, overworked and tired, but fighting with all his power to protect her and his daughter, and Seiros… She was back there, still hurting, still lost in her own pain, with her mother avoiding her and never attempting to reconnect. Sothis gritted her teeth, not from pain, not from anger, but from frustration over what she had to do.

‘’I’m sorry but I… I can’t die here. Not now. I need to keep them safe.’’

She solemnly closed her eyes and pushed her power into the sword, now pointed at the mage once more, feeling it spring into the man, but refusing to see him die. The circle of fire vanished soon after, and her leg suddenly healed.

‘’I didn’t… Wait… That’s right, my crest.’’ The goddess muttered, realizing the power she had borrowed Byleth still existed within her, the Crest of Flames, one which steals the lifeforce of those it wounds.

Such a cruel crest, not unlike its original owner, which stole the power of others for himself by wounding and killing them; and now she was using it to take the life force of the very life she blessed this world with.

Turning around while reeling it back, she used the momentum of the chain being pulled back into the pommel to slash at three more soldiers who were making their way towards her, either injuring or killing them, she didn’t know, and didn’t wait to see, already moving on.

‘’I can’t wallow in this now, I need to get to Edelgard and finish this, the others are counting on me. Byleth is counting on me.’’

Although it didn’t make it any easier, she allowed Byleth’s instincts to take the wheel when killing the soldiers, focusing on planning her next moves and routes to Edelgard.

/-/

Manuela stood in front of them, leading the group, and ordering their positions, Claude had already struck down some pegasi and wyvern knights who attempted to cut through the wall, Lysithea and Ignatz helping while Leonie, Raphael and Hilda focused on the front, Lorenz, thanks to the long range of his Heroes Relic, Thyrsus, stuck to their other side, making sure no enemies of the group attacking the center of the monastery attempted to cut their way into them. Meanwhile, Flayn and Marianne focused on healing and supporting the fighters as best as they could. Overall a good strategy for now, however they were still stuck in the defensive, Claude thought.

‘’Stay steady, the next wave is coming and they seem to have Demonic Beasts with them. Darn, guess I won’t be able to get that Death Knight after all.’’ Manuela said, sounding less worried and more annoyed than anything else.

‘’Still sore about him stabbing you in the back?’’ Claude poked fun at the teacher, breaking from his position to get a good look at the next wave, commanding his battalion to prepare their arrows to rain on it. ‘’You know, we _are _in the middle of a war right now, professor, we can’t afford petty squabbles.’’

Manuela huffed at him, crossing her arms as she ordered her own battalion to unleash a ball of fire into the upcoming wave along with Claude’s arrows. ‘’Don’t sass me, brat, I would never put such things above your safety… It would just be nice to mix fun with work for once.’’

Claude carefully watched the projectiles in their trajectory, using the banter as a way to relax during the tense wait. ‘’As if that’s something new for you, I recall some students complaining about you going to class in a pretty tipsy state.’’

‘’One more joke and you’ll become a tragic, but necessary casualty of war, Mr. Riegan.’’ Manuela finished, turning away from him and focusing on the army, however he could see a faint hint of a smile on her face as she said that. Claude chuckled and did the same, just as both battalion attacks hit the wave. As the fire struck, the arrows followed soon after, however, the flames were smothered by a dark energy, and the arrows shattered into pieces, falling into the ground pathetically.

A dark shield had been raised, surrounding the army, and slowly fading, revealing Edelgard’s second in command, Hubert.

‘’Professor Manuela, good to see you again. Hope I am not late for class?’’ He joked.

Hubert.

_Joking_.

It _really _was the end of times wasn’t it?

‘’Well I’ll be damned, Bertie, didn’t expect you to have a sense of humor’’ Claude walked past Manuela, who gave him a murderous stare that told him she was seconds from forcing him back behind her, he merely nodded at her, hoping she could understand his idea. ‘’Edelgard’s little shadow, kinda odd however, usually shadows follow their owners. So tell me Bert, where is Edelgard?’’

Lorenz was slowly making his way closer to Hubert, hidden behind the bushes dividing them and the central area. Claude made sure to not look that way, avoiding giving away his friend’s position.

‘’Lady Edelgard is where she needs to be.’’ Hubert snapped his fingers, and just like that, five demonic beasts surrounded him, either flying down or jumping to cross the distance. Claude cursed as Lorenz had to fall back with a teleportation spell or else he’d have to face the beasts alone. Leave it to Hubert to see through his scheme, he WAS Edelgard’s tactician for a reason, Claude would have to step up his game if he wanted to get the drop on that guy.

‘’But don’t worry, she sent you her regards.’’ Hubert said, making Claude’s attention go back to him, as he surrounded himself in dark magic. ‘’Allow me to deliver them proper.’’

/-/

The wave was utterly curb stomped by the Blue Lions, Hanneman silencing any mages while Dimitri, Felix, Dedue and Sylvain crushed anyone attempting to break their formation, Ingrid and Ashe were providing air support on their Pegasus and Wyvern respectively, while Annette provided cover fire and Mercedes provided magic support. While it was more melee focused than he’d like, Hanneman was satisfied with the solid defense his students managed to provide.

Now if only young Dimitri would stop attempting to break formation at every second and growl at him whenever he called him out on it.

‘’Mr. Blaiddyd, I can see you.’’ He sighed as Dimitri eyed the emptied road ahead of them. ‘’Do not even think about it, we need you here as our main force. You know that just as well, they will at some point send in a stronger wave to brute force their way through, and you are one of our strongest fighters.’’

‘’But if I get to that woman first and cut off the head of the army, I can end this now!’’ He roared, it was as if he was a completely different person from the nice and polite student Hanneman knew. ‘’I _need _to get to her!’’

Hanneman couldn’t help but feel awful. The boy shouldn’t be in a battlefield, not in that state, the last thing he needed right now was being told to kill. He was ill, and it had made him mentally unstable, that much was clear as day. All Hanneman wanted was to sit him down and try to talk to him, help him. But sadly war gave them no time for such. He could only hope they would finish this quickly so he could try to save the prince from his own demons. It was his duty as his teacher to at least try.

‘’Your highness, please, you need to calm yourself.’’ Dedue put a hand on his shoulder, making Dimitri flinch and swat it away.

‘’Don’t get in my way, Dedue, you know very well why I need to do this, I have t-‘’

_**‘’Am I interrupting something?’’**_ A distorted, booming voice echoed through the street, making everyone snap back to it.

The second wave arrived, teleported in, and somehow Hanneman hadn’t even noticed. It was smaller, but they were being led by five cavaliers, all surrounding the knight he’d been hearing so much about, a reaper who had been slaying knights and civilians alike, the one who kidnapped young Flayn and hurt Manuela.

‘’You…’’ Dimitri roared, ‘’You’re the bastard who kidnapped poor Flayn… The _monster _who was at Remire with that traitor Tomas and that witch Edelgard.’’

The Death Knight stared right at Dimitri, it was hard to make out the reaper’s expression, but going by the way he tilted his head, he seemed rather curious at the young prince. _**‘’You.’’** _He said, nodding at the student. _**‘’You and I are alike.’’**_

‘’Don’t you DARE compare me to you,’’ Dimitri spat, ‘’We are NOTHING alike, you filthy animal.’’

The Death Knight chuckled, shaking his head,**_ ‘’We both long for death, be it someone else’s or our own. It doesn’t matter, as long as our thirst is quenched. All that matters is the destruction of life.’’_**

‘’Very well then,’’ Dimitri said, spinning his spear and getting into his stance, as Sylvain, Felix and Dedue stood next to him doing the same. ‘’Let’s start with yours.’’

The chuckle became a full laugh, as the Death Knight readied his scythe. _**‘’That’s the spirit!’’**_

Dimitri dashed at the knight head on, screaming like a wild animal. The five knighs surrounding the reaper attempted to deter him but Dedue quickly blocked one with his shield, while Felix slashed at the second one, forcing him to dodge out of the way, Sylvain deflected the third, physically pushing him away from Dimitri, who, when blocked by the fourth, punched the lance slashing at him, an odd mixture of spear and scythe, out of his hands, the weapon flying straight upwards, and then dug his own lance through the man’s armor and chest, with pure crest enhanced brute force, finishing by throwing the skewered knight out of the way, spear and all.

The now dying knight’s scythe fell in Dimitri’s hands, who without missing a beat, went to strike the final one of the Death Knight’s escorts with it.

The Death Knight watched the prince’s ferocity in what seemed like awe, allowing Hanneman to fire a wind spell at him, the currents forming into a thin crescent blade made of air, aimed at his neck. The reaper merely swatted it away with his arm and turned to the professor.

_**‘’I have no interest in fighting worms such as you, there is only one person I wish to face.’’**_ He turned to Dimitri, who was still slashing wildly at the cavalier, each strike pushing the man back, as it became clear Dimitri’s goal was less to score a hit and more to crush the man with the sheer force of his strikes. **_‘’Possibly two, now.’’_**

With his already stretched arm, the knight waved his hand at Hanneman, who recognized the motion and dodged right before the thunder spell struck, a lot stronger than the usual version of the spell he realized. ‘’My goodness, you do seem to be quite proficient in magic yourself. Good, it means I do not have to hold back.’’

Beside him, Annette and Mercedes prepared to battle, while Ingrid and Ashe fend off a flying demonic beast. ‘’Manuela would never forgive me if I didn’t get back at you for what you did to her, and I really don’t want that woman pestering me about it. So let’s make sure this hurts, hm?’’

/-/

Lorenz attacked Hubert with an orb of miasma, the black mage merely swatting it away, chuckling. Said chuckle was cut off when Hilda nearly sliced his head off with an axe, having been teleported near him by Marianne while Lorenz was distracting him. ''Your little invasion forced me to train for _two weeks straight_, you know!'' Giving him no time to fire any spells, Hilda kept slashing at him, grinning like a loon the entire time. ‘’Now since you've made me _work_, I'll at least show off the results!’’

His armies were busy fighting theirs, while Manuela, Raphael and Leonie dealt with the Demonic beasts, however Claude could tell the next wave would come soon, they were making no progress in this, and at this rate, it would become a war of attrition, whoever gives out first dies.

‘’Lysithea, fall back!’’ Claude ordered, the white haired mage hopping back accordingly using magic to propel herself, landing next to him, probably not as graceful as she'd hope, as she nearly tripped, grabbing his sleeve to balance herself; Claude avoided even commenting on it considering the fierce glare she gave him. ‘’What is it?’’

‘’While Hubert is busy, what's the maximum distance you could teleport me right now?’’

She looked around, seemingly making some calculations in her head, and then nodded to a building about three houses after from Hubert's current spot. ‘’Over there, either on the roof or inside.’’

‘’Can it be inside?’’

The girl sighed dramatically, ‘’Of course you'd want the most difficult option. Yes, I can. But you'll be all alone, is that wise?’’

Claude hummed, looking at the demonic beasts leaving their fight with Manuela and coming to help Hubert, forcing Hilda to shift her focus, while Raphael tried to keep Hubert busy on his own, however the mage was much faster, managing to gain enough distance to fire spells again, proving it with a SwarmZ which Flayn managed to dispel with a Seraphim before it hit Raphael.

‘’If my bet is correct, and let's be honest, it probably is,’’ Lysithea rolled her eyes at his comment, ‘’Edelgard is on her own, behind the front lines, to coordinate the next wave once they arrive. If I can get to her, I can at least keep her busy until you guys or any of the other teams manage to break through her army. It will also prevent her from escaping once she realizes her initial attack was beaten.’’

Lysithea agreed but clearly didn't look happy with it. ‘’Alright, I will do it, but _please_, do be careful.’’

‘’Awww you _do _care’’ he said, opening his arms for a hug, which she responded by stepping away from him, to prepare the spell.

‘’Don't make me teleport you off a cliff instead.’’

/-/

Hubert felt the spell in an instant, looking around to see anyone missing, and finding the Riegan rat had disappeared, the Ordelia brat’s hands still releasing a faint glow. Following the traces of magic, he made to run away and chase the spell, realizing the sly worms were planning on striking Lady Edelgard while she was alone.

''W-Wait Lysithea what ar-'' He heard the Gloucester fool shout, and that was the only warning he had to jump back from the path he was taking.

Five giant dark magic spikes stabbed the ground in front of him, blocking his path completely. Closing his fists in anger, he turned to see the two crested girl pointing the Gloucester Heroes Relic at him, face smug as she slowly walked forward, casually throwing it back at the noble fool, who looked stupefied by her use of it.

''Now then'' she said, bringing her hands up, also glowing with power, ''Shall we continue where we stopped?''

He quickly fired a Banshee spell straight under her, she noticed as the tendrils of dark energy rose, and opening her arms, pushed them away, resisting the spell entirely. Not missing a beat, she fired a SwarmZ at him, the cloud of insects biting and stinging at him, cursing him to death of a thousand cuts, until he used his own magic to push them away in a wave of power, the cursed critters vanishing after being struck. An arrow attempted to strike him but he easily avoided it and fired back a miasma straight at their other archer.

Taking a quick look around, his head fired on all cylinders to keep track of what was currently happening, Riegan had escaped, their old professor, Goneril, the Blade Breaker’s apprentice and the brute were fighting off the beasts with the support of Edmund, while the repugnant child of the goddess was healing the archer he had struck, and Gloucester was ready to support Lysithea in her battle with him.

Hubert fired a Death spell, it forming behind Lysithea before she could realize, and Gloucester pushed her away, taking the brunt of it in her stead. Angry, she responded with a Banshee of her own, which he easily dodged and fired a Miasma at her while she was still finishing her stance of the spell, knocking her down. Spell wise she was a powerhouse, however physically, she was slow and frail.

Staring at Lysithea, he couldn't help his frustrations, especially when seeing her hair. ‘’You know Edelgard's connection to you, and yet you still side against her? Do you not see how her goals benefit you?’’

The girl's eyes widened, she knew it, clearly, or at least suspected it. ‘’She plans on never letting what happen repeat itself ever again.’’ She had to realize now the truth of Lady Edelgard's goals, that what she meant was not to just conquer, but to clean the slate, remove the corrupt roots that have slowly suffocated Fódlan for centuries, and begin anew, in a world where those experiments would never be allowed.

‘’Edelgard's hair made me question it for a while, indeed. I considered approaching her on the topic, several times, whenever she'd attempt to help me and offered to spend time with me, acting like a big sister and all. I knew she had at least figured me out. And her having that knowledge, combined with her own hair, could only mean one thing, yes, I had figured that much.’’

‘’Wait, Lysithea, are you and Edelgard related?’’ The Goneril fool asked with a gasp, interrupting their conversation as she finished smashing a hammer into a Demonic Beast's maw, knocking it through a wall and off the cliffs of Garreg Mach. They were beginning to finish the wave, good thing the next one was well in its way.

‘’In a sense, yes... Me and Edelgard are related, we share something important. However,’’ She turned back to Hubert, getting on her feet again, her eyes filled with resolve, which disappointed the dark mage, as he already knew what her answer would be, ‘’Lashing out on all of Fódlan won't change anything, even if she has good intentions.’’

Hubert took her distraction for what it was, and hit her with a Nosferatu, hoping to weaken her already fragile body and heal his own wounds. She cried in agony as the spell struck, and he didn't stop there, firing several Miasma orbs at her, all aimed at the ground before her, so she wouldn’t be able to block them, but the explosions of dark magic would still hit her.

‘’To think all the sacrifices and struggles Lady Edelgard has put herself through as mere ''lashing out'', to completely misunderstand her goals and intentions.’’ Hubert spat, walking towards her. The fools she called friends tried to protect her, but opening his hands and waving them down, he fired off several Dark Spikes, forming two walls separating her from everyone on both sides, singling her out and leaving his path clear. They desperately attempted to break through the spell, he could see them through the semi transparent spikes attacking them, however the spell held on. ‘’Honestly, it was foolish of me to try and reason with a mere child, who could never understand the world of adults, stuck in her own fantasies and delusions.’’

Every single one of Lysithea’s friends trying to break the spikes to help her froze. Hubert for a moment thought they were in despair, however, he could read their faces as nothing but shock from what he said. He realized his words may have been chosen poorly once he felt a sudden wave of magic, both reason and faith combined.

‘’You shouldn't have said that, Bert!’’ Goneril pointed, distracting him only a fraction from the girl, who had started getting up, her robes dirtied and ripped in some spots, blood dripping from her forehead, as her entire frame was slowly covered in magic aura so intense her white hair was flowing wildly from it.

‘’You know, Hubert, I must to thank you,’’ she said, finally standing up, chuckling between her tired breath, said laughs sounding anything _but _happy, ‘’For whenever someone calls me a child, I must ignore and let my anger sizzle out, as I'd be just proving their point. Be called a child throwing a tantrum. However...’’

The walls of Dark Spikes shattering from the sheer power she was generating was the only warning he had as she began attacking.

A Miasma was suddenly fired at him, which he narrowly dodged, only to land on a Banshee, which he dispelled with his own powers, giving way to a SwarmZ, which blocked his view from the several Dark Spikes that rained from the sky, as Hubert threw himself into the ground to avoid the spikes, and kept rolling as more kept dropping into whatever spot he was at, hoping to get out of her range.

However the next Dark Spike was followed by a Luna spell, the black hole sucking him back within Lysithea’s range, as she prepared her next spell. ‘’You _are _our enemy, and this _is _war.’’ She roared at him gritting her teeth in a vicious smile. ‘’With you, I feel like I’d be forgiven for going a _bit_ overboard, so allow me to get much needed catharsis!’’ A circle of Dark Spikes floated above her head and was quickly aimed at him.

That's the last thing Hubert heard before scrambling back to his feet and running for cover behind a Demonic Beast which got the Fódlan's first black magic acupuncture therapy.

/-/

His world shifted, as a pink flash blinded him, Claude felt no solid ground for a split second, before landing inside the house, falling to his knees from the sudden shift in balance.

‘’Ugh, alright, no cliff, good.’’

Getting up, he walked around the room, looking through the windows to get his bearings. Through one window he saw Seteth in his Wyvern clashing with a female Wyvern Knight. She and a few others on that section of the fight were wearing different armor than the rest, an elite group maybe? Or hopefully Edelgard had gotten arrogant and sent her persona escort to the fight, thinking she wouldn’t need them. That could be his lucky break.

‘’Alright, that’s the central area, which was to my left, which means…’’ Going to the window on the other side, he saw an orange haired figure flipping and dodging a demonic beast while another brown haired one threw a spell so powerful the creature was knocked back, while a bigger figure just punched another beast away and a blue haired figure released a wave of ice freezing a beast in place for a pink haired one to whack it in the face with a hammer.

Oh and a small white haired figure launching what looked like every single spell known to Fódlan at a figure dressed entirely in black, who seemed to be less trying to fight and more trying to survive.

‘’Bet he called her a child,’’ Claude chuckled, ‘’Baaaaad move Hub.’’

While he was relieved to see his Deer were doing well, not everything was simple, however, as a wave of flying demonic beasts were beginning to swarm the spot, his friends having just finished the ones around Hubert and the battalions looking like they couldn’t hold much longer. He needed to end this and fast, capture Edelgard and force their surrender, kill Edelgard and remove the one organizing their troops and waves.

Hopefully he could accomplish the former, because he _really _didn’t want to do the latter.

He walked around the house, going to another room, which would, if his guess were correct, lead straight to the entrance of Garreg Mach, right where Edelgard should be. He made sure to be careful with his steps and when removing furniture out of the way, feeling guilty for the invasion; war or not, this was someone’s house, their entire life was here.

Finally, he found what he was looking, another window; its glass panels were broken, but a small peak into it gave him just what he wanted to see: Edelgard.

She was standing at the entrance, just a couple of meters away from the lawn of the building he was on, no guards or escorts; his guess was right and she had sent those to join the battle. More than that, she seemed focused on the battle ahead, unaware of any possible incoming attacks anywhere else.

Good.

He flexed his bow, as silent as humanly possible, aiming it straight for her head, thanking his luck for the window’s glass panel being broken, otherwise he’d have to open it and possibly give away his position with the motion. But now he was there, out of her view, and ready to fire an arrow right at her eye.

His head was going wild, calculating the trajectory several times over and over, as he kept trying to steady himself further and further, until he finally decided it was perfect, or as good as he possibly could.

He released the string.

She noticed the arrow before it could hit its target, moving swiftly, way too fast for someone carrying a shield and axe of those sizes, even more considering her own size.

Well, so much for the element of surprise, Claude thought, as Edelgard instantly spotted him on the window of the building. He sighed, as he broke the rest of the window with a small apology to the owner of the place, and crouched on it, preparing to jump off.

To make matters worse, thanks to the building’s location, he couldn’t tell where the Blue Lions were, while he could tell Seteth, the knights and his friends were too busy to help. He was alone in this, but then again, he always knew it was a gamble, either he beat her on his own, held her back until reinforcements showed up, or worst case scenario, hope he could do some lasting damage before dying so the cavalry can finish the job once they show up.

‘’Hey, you're in my lawn,’’ he mocked, jumping off the window, ‘’that's invasion of property you know. I can get you arrested for that. Well that and, you know, the whole war thing.’’

‘’Not the person I was expecting, if I'm frank, but regardless, this is still good.’’ She got in her fighting stance, one that was quite different from the one she’d use during their fights and training.

‘’Guess you were holding back quite a lot during those mock battles, huh?’’ Claude said, preparing his bow, element of surprise ruined thus no point in hiding himself anymore, time for plan B.

‘’It wouldn't do to give away all my trump cards before I actually need them.’’ She said, facing him with a neutral expression, her usual one. Edelgard was another one with a mask, Claude figured, but unlike Dimitri's which was a desperate attempt to become said mask, hers was one of neutrality and lack of emotion. Even now after she showed her true colors, she kept that same emotionless face of hers.

Claude couldn't help but wonder if it was even a mask at that point or just who she was.

‘’So you were behind it all huh? The Death Knight, the mysterious groups wandering the town, the attempts to steal the Sword of the Creator, all of that was you,’’ It wasn't a question, as all those points were clear, it was more an attempt to poke and prod her, see how much of the Edelgard he knew in the last six months was fake, see if there was any semblance of regret there. ‘’What about those bandits then? You too? Were you attempting to remove me and Dimitri that time?’’

Her face twitched a small fraction, brows furrowing in a way that was almost unnoticeable. Almost.

‘’I did,’’ she said, a small dose of remorse in her tone, ‘’You two are the future leaders of the parties I wish to defeat, taking you out early would've been the best logical move.’’

So she wasn't an emotionless bastard after all, she just forced it all down for the sake of what she believed in.

‘’I don't disagree’’, Claude said, ‘’But is it still in your plans then? Killing me, Dimitri, and then taking over all of Fódlan?’’

‘’Depends on what you'll do now. You too mistrust the church and despises all of its secrets, so tell me, will you still protect it?’’

Claude sighed, looking back at the monastery. There was just too much being kept from him, from the people in general, things that affected everyone and impacted the people he cared for the most, he would be the first to admit that. It bothered him, a lot, especially considering the things he had seen the last few months. However...

‘’You have a good point about the church, heck about crests in general, there is no doubt about it.’’ Edelgard smiled upon hearing that response; said smile died once she noticed him raising his bow. ‘’But starting a war and forcing everyone to accept your ideals or die? We'll have to agree to disagree on that.’’

‘’Such a shame, then.’’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost no Sothis in the second half here, but that's mostly because I not only had to split this chapter in two, but had to split the perspectives several times thanks to the amount of events happening.  
Not gonna lie I may have gone a bit overboard with a certain fight, but you will see in the next chapter, I'll try to use the extra time to clean up the second half more and expand on more things.  
My original plan was just making one big chapter out of this, but as I added more and more and realized I spent like, three full weeks without posting anything, I've decided it'd be better to suck it up and split it in two. Hopefully this means the next chapter will be done soon, as I already have most of it planned and a good chunk of it written already.  
In any case, thank you for your patience and hope you enjoy it! Sorry if the fights are still a bit messy, I'm still getting used to writing these!
> 
> Oh yeah btw I legit couldn't find a good place to put it in the story beyond implying it through Flayn's dialogue, but in the fic Byleth did Seteth's paralogue, thus Flayn knows it's okay to talk about him being her father in front of ''Byleth''. Sorry for not making it clear enough!


	6. Seeing Red

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the Battle for Garreg Mach continues, the past comes back to haunt several factions, as long repressed traumas return and lines between friend or foe become more and more blurred.

Sothis couldn’t help but feel a bit disgusted at how surprisingly easy she was handling the battle, around her she could hear people screaming in agony, killing each others like wild animals, staining the entire monastery red with the blood of their fellow humans, and showing no remorse or regret in their actions, fighting for blind belief in their rulers.

Meanwhile the sword which had slain so many of her children was now in her hands, being used to murder the humans which she created and blessed so long ago. All that was still nothing compared to the knowledge that children were fighting as well, somewhere in battlefield, teenagers which Byleth had dedicated her life for six months straight, and poured every ounce of her being into raising and teaching them.

Teenagers who had slowly given Byleth the humanity she didn’t even know she wanted.

And yet now none of it mattered, she was gone, and all Sothis could do was make sure the brats were safe from harm, it was the least she could do, considering she had taken the last shred of Byleth’s humanity for herself.

A Demonic Beast dashed towards her, Sothis unleashed all power she could into the blade, forcing the chain out, and with a twirl, slashed the beast’s front legs, finishing by planting a foot on the ground to stop her spin, and using the momentum to slash at the beast’s neck, killing it instantly, revealing a dead soldier and a broken crest stone as it’s husk turned to smoke.

She didn’t have time to stare at it, but the fact Byleth’s body could do all the fighting without much input from hers meant she could wallow on it. Demonic Beasts… Nothing more than humans corrupted by the hearts of her children, which were stolen or hidden as if they were powerful weapons; not unlike the relics themselves.

This entire war was using her children’s remains as weapons, and no one even knew. Thanks to Seiros burying the story, all people knew was that they were weapons blessed by her or cursed by her, and so they were treated as such, just divine artifacts with immense power.

She could feel the enemies she wounded giving her life force, the energy slipping through their wounds and flowing towards her. They were losing stamina fast thanks to it, every small cut or wound could mean their strength diminished whenever her crest activated. Holding the Sword of the Creator right now, and consuming the lives of those around her for power, she couldn’t help but compare herself to Nemesis.

A gust of wind to her left made her snap out of her thoughts, Cichol landed beside her, the Wyvern smashing the tiles with the strength of its descent, growling furiously. Cichol himself was sweating, his usually immaculate clothing looking quite worn out.

‘’It seems Edelgard sent her elite to fight us, these soldiers are a step above the others. It is possible she sent her own guard to the front, which means she’s left vulnerable.’’

Sothis nodded, ‘’So we just got to break through them and reach Edelgard.’’

‘’It won’t be so simple, that woman leading the wyvern riders is quite strong. We can’t risk using someone to teleport us to Edelgard because it would weaken our forces here and leave the mage vulnerable.’’

‘’Fall back then, let them isolate Edelgard further and lead them to the soldiers behind us.’’ Sothis nodded towards the knights behind her, finishing the current wave of soldiers, ‘’They’re an elite but they’re still just five soldiers against a battalion.’’

‘’We’d risk allowing the next wave of soldiers arriving before we can get to her.’’

‘’Not if we are quick enough.’’ Sothis shrugged, already hopping back.

‘’Mo- I mean, Professor, W- Tch! She just won’t ever listen, will she?’’ Seteth grunted, signaling his Wyvern to fly him back towards the mass of Knights, who were preparing for the next wave.

She got into position, sword in hand, preparing for the Wyvern Riders.

_’’I got fire magic, hopefully I can aim at the soldiers and leave the poor Wyverns out of this’’_

Looking towards the army, she allowed herself to focus, pushing back her thoughts about the war. There was no point in wallowing on it, not when she knew what she had to do.

/-/

The Death Knight fired a Thoron at Professor Hanneman, who narrowly dodged it, the powerful beam burning a part of his coat which flapped with his sudden movement to get out of the way. In response, Mercedes threw several fireballs at him, which the reaper didn’t even bother dodging, merely dashing through them.

As he closed the distance on her, Mercedes realized it was too close for her stronger spells, which all had a big area of effect. Thus she attempted to hop away, to gain some distance, only to be met with a thunder spell aimed at where she was going to land, the blast throwing her straight back to the knight.

_**‘’It’s pointless, death comes to us all.’’**_ He broke her trajectory by slamming the blunt end of his scythe on her, slamming her into the ground with a painful thud.

Hanneman was on his way, but he couldn’t make it in time, desperate, Mercedes unleashed a Bolganone, the large orb of purple acid forming above the knight’s head. ‘’I’m sorry but I can’t die here!’’

**_‘’You don’t get to choose.’_**’ With a spin of his scythe, he swung it straight into the orb with such power it was cut in half, the liquid falling around him but not on him thanks to the cut, burning the ground around forcing Hanneman to hop back.

Still spinning his Scythe, he prepared to swing it at her. She could only close her eyes as it approached her. ‘’I’m sorry everyone.’’

Only instead of flesh and bones giving way to metal, she heard a crack of stone; the scythe having missed her entirely and stabbing the pavement right next to her. She could see his hand gripping the weapon with such strength it was shaking.

** _‘’You… Shouldn’t be here…’’_ **

‘’W-What…?’’

**_‘’Get out of here Mercedes,’’_** His breath became more ragged, sounding like he was growling, _**‘’I will not spare you twice.’’**_

Pulling his scythe back, and ripping even more pavement, he blocked an incoming bolt axe strike from Annie, who looked absolutely livid.

‘’STAY AWAY FROM HER!’’

The sheer force of the magical weapon pushed him back enough to give Mercedes space to get back up, in time to witness Hanneman aiming a Thoron at the knight, who cursed as he was forced to fall back.

As the professor helped her back up, she couldn’t help but feel lost at the knight’s words, why did he hesitate to kill her? And how did he know her? He said he was sparing her that one time, which meant he didn’t miss but actually decided not to hurt her, why?

A horrific scream cut off those thoughts, as she looked around and saw Dimitri’s opponent.

‘’Oh dear…’’

It seemed as if his body had finally given into Dimitri’s strength, the last clash of lances resulting in not only the poor man’s armor cracking around the arms, but blood leaking from said cracks as his arms went limp, dropping the lance entirely. It seemed like the sheer force of Dimitri’s strikes had crushed the knight’s muscle and bones.

‘’Now, GET OUT OF MY WAY!’’ the prince shouted, stabbing the soldier in the chest with the scythe portion of the lance and using it as a hook to throw him into the nearest wall, killing him instantly.

Looking around and setting his sights on the Death Knight, Dimitri dashed towards him, with killing intent she had never seen in his eyes before.

_**‘’Finally!’’**_ The reaper said, as he unleashed a Thoron into the prince, who swung his spear into it and redirected the beam into the ground around him, dirt and stone exploding everywhere but not stopping his chase. Looking around, she saw Felix, Sylvain and Dedue were still having trouble with their own opponents, Ingrid and Ashe already on their way to help them, while her, Professor Hanneman, Annie and now Dimitri had to beat the Death Knight.

‘’Now I’ll make you pay for all the blood you’ve shed, demon!’’ Dimitri roared, slashing at the Death Knight’s chest, who grabbed the lance under the blade and pulled, throwing Dimitri to the side with ridiculous strength.

_ **‘’Not bad, but you’re gonna need more than sheer brute force if you wish to kill me.’’** _

Dimitri canceled his momentum by stabbing the scythe into the ground and went back to chasing the reaper, who this time responded with his own scythe, both weapons clashing in an agonizing sound of metal clanking together. The Death Knight broke off from the clash to dodge an axe swing from Annie, which was soon followed by several cutting wind slashes, the knight dodging them with ridiculous speed.

Taking the chance, Mercedes joined the battle again, unleashing a Bolganone where the reaper landed, which exploded in a mighty wave of fire under him.

**_‘’Tch.’’_** He fired off a Death spell, which she narrowly dodged, the explosion of dark magic sending shockwaves in the battlefield. And then Dimitri was back, swinging his scythe upwards, which the knight dodged and slashed back, and got his own scythe caught by the Prince, who held him in place with sheer strength unless he let go of the scythe, all while Professor Hanneman, Mercedes AND Annie fired off different spells at him.

He didn’t let go, instead using his strength to lift Dimitri and slam him back into the ground, forcing him to let go and swatting the giant blast of magic away with his weapon. However Annie threw a Sagittae as he was still swinging his scythe, the dark arrows piercing through his armor, finally making some damage in it, including his mask, cracking a large piece of it in the right side of his face, revealing a lock of hair…

The same color as hers.

‘’Emile…?’’

The eye now uncovered by the mask widened, snapping straight at her. She didn’t realize she had said it out loud.

_ **‘’I am… Not…’’** _

His words were cut off by Dimitri, who started attacking the now cracked spots in his armor, slowly tearing them off. ‘’Now I’ve got you!’’ He laughed, continuing his flurry of strikes.

Annette fired another row of Sagittae, which helped Dimitri by cracking more pieces of the knight’s armor, forcing him to fall back behind some soldiers with a disgruntled growl.

**_‘’I can’t die here, not before I had a chance to fight HER one more time.’’_** He watched as Dimitri attempted to close the distance, unable to break through the soldiers blocking his path, **_‘’You have potential, survive this battle so that we may have a chance to kill each other. And you…’’_**

He stared directly at Mercedes.

** _‘’He will not protect you next time, so stay away or be prepared to die… Or kill.’’_ **

‘’Wait, EMILE!’’ She was too late, he had already vanished in pink light, teleported elsewhere.

‘’GET BACK HERE YOU COWARD!’’ Dimitri roared to the skies, kicking away a soldier that was trying to get to him.

Was that really him? But if so, then what happened to him? How did her little brother end up in such an awful spot?

She couldn’t help but blame herself, remembering how she and mother left him with the Bartels when they escaped. Guilt bubbled inside of her, as she remembered his horror in being called by his name, in realizing she had found him out.

Was he afraid of her?

And was it so wrong of him to be so? Considering what she had done to him?

‘’DIMITRI, COME BACK HERE! NO!’’

‘’YOUR HIGHNESS, WAIT!’’

‘’BOAR, YOU FOOL!’’

She snapped back to the battlefield, to see Dimitri blurring in the distance, dashing into the front gates of the Monastery, knocking away any soldiers in his way and smashing through any debris, walls or even houses blocking his path.

His friends prepared to give chase, but soon, a horde of Demonic Beasts surrounded the area, teleported in most likely to replace the Death Knight

‘’Curses!’’ Professor Hanneman said, looking over to the horizon, Dimitri not even visible anymore. ‘’We need to cut through! Let’s take care of the demonic beasts and prepare to open a path through the soldiers! Don’t you dare die on me, prince!’’

‘’The sooner we find him the better, he won’t be too far’’ Dedue said, his eyes darkened and his expression one of forced tranquility, as he got into his stance focusing on a Demonic beast.

‘’We know exactly where he went to, he made sure to not shut up about it the past three weeks. Edelgard is on the front gates, so he’ll be there.’’ Felix responded.

Looking out in the distance, Mercedes could only hope her friend would be fine, the guilt in her growing. Just like with Emile, she knew something was wrong with Dimitri, they all did, that much was clear. But they did nothing about it, believing time to be of the essence. And now he might be running headfirst into his own death thanks to her inaction.

Maybe Emile was right, they were alike, in that both were let down by the people they trusted when they needed them the most.

/-/

He kept on the move, Edelgard was quick, even under all the heavy armor, but it still weighted her down enough for him to keep himself far from her swinging distance, and pelt her with arrows. Not that it did anything, as she would shield her face and everywhere else was armored. He needed a different approach to stop her.

Quickly moving behind her, he threw himself into some bushes, faster than she could turn to see. For Edelgard, he'd just suddenly vanished from her sight; and to his dismay, her expression didn't change at all.

_’’What's the point of being good in reading people's expressions to predict their moves if my enemy has the emotional range of a brick wall?’’_

Instead, Edelgard simply looked at the general area, her eyes scanning every piece of debris and bush he could've hidden behind. Claude's eyes widened once she put her axe away and made some complex movements with her hands, as a magical circle formed.

_’’She can perform spells too, right, the Flame Emperor could use those, I forgot, damn it!’’_

A Thoron spell quickly fired, destroying a large pile of rubble that once was a stone wall, burning through its center and making the structure around it collapse. She turned to another pile and proceeded to do the same, setting fire to some bushes close to it in the process.

Realizing he was running out of time, Claude quickly grabbed a small rock from the ground and waited until she had turned her blind spot to him, the Flame Emperor's shoulder spikes blocking some of her view from the side, enough for what he had planned.

He threw the rock directly ahead of him, it landed in the floor making a sound easily mistakable with footsteps, and making Edelgard turn her back to him to inspect the sudden noise.

With that small distraction, he found enough room to act, firing an arrow aimed at her; afterwards, running from the bush to find cover in a small pile of rubble somewhere else. Edelgard easily dodged the arrow, it was a terrible, pathetic shot, angled in a way that would face the most resistance possible, making it painfully slow, but that wasn't the point; she studied the way it stabbed the ground, and grabbed her axe, making her way to the bush he once was. The direction made Edelgard believe he fired the arrow from the bush, which he did, but the delay from it being thrown in the worst angle instead of straight at her, however, made her think he was still in the bush when he had already left it.

So now Edelgard had lowered her guard, fully expecting her enemy to be straight ahead of her. He took aim once again, his spot wasn't very good still, from this angle it would hit her at the side and she would be able to see it coming and react easily; which was why he threw it not at an angle, which would allow the arc to increase its speed, but straight at her, facing resistance in its entirety.

Once the arrow was shot, it gave Edelgard more than enough time to notice it and react, but also gave Claude enough time to jump off his hiding spot and close the distance while she was still parrying the arrow. His sword in hand, he aimed straight at her face, the only unarmored spot he could find, as even her neck was being protected by that damned Flame Emperor armor.

It connected with a shield, as she quickly raised it to protect her face, and then swung her overextended arm back at him, the speed making the axe whistle in the air as it closed into his face.

Claude broke contact from her to avoid getting beheaded, but quickly attempted to strike again, deciding the best way to beat her would be bleeding her out, going for weak points in her armor.

He kept striking her side, limbs and joints, probing her suit of armor; it was mostly covered by the large robe she had been wearing, but that just proved there WERE weak spots in there, or else she'd have nothing to hide, much less be able to move so quickly.

''You really do believe all this, don't you? That everything will be perfectly fine as long as you win'' He attempted going for under her arm, but she swatted it away with her axe, ''That no matter how much blood is shed, as long as you take the church down, it'll be all worth it.''

''The Church of Seiros is corrupt and performing atrocious acts in the name of a false Goddess, they need to be rid from this world like the plague they are.''

''And you will go through everyone for that huh? Friends, loved ones, family, all for that.'' He avoided her axe again, this time the blade cutting a small piece of his uniform. ''I'm sorry but unlike you, I don't plan to trample over everything and everyone for my goals, I wish to build the future through trust and respect, not betrayal and fear.’’

Her face remained the same, but her speed increased, blocking his strikes faster, however Claude kept going with his hit and run strategy, constantly moving around her.

‘’If you had trusted us with what you knew, we could've helped you. It’s why we _were _there in the first place, that’s the entire point of having the three future leaders of Fódlan together in Officer’s Academy!’’

‘’That’s rich of you, the schemer who’s not afraid of bending the rules and tricking people, to tell me how I betrayed you all!’’

Claude smiled, thinking about his friends who were out there fighting and putting their hopes in him. ‘’Yeah, I do like a good strategy, I don’t mind tricking people to get results, but that’s because I always was alone, I always had to do everything on my own, It’s kinda hard to achieve what you want, to survive, when everyone’s against you!’’ He went under her swing, sword whistling in the air as he managed to connect a strike into her elbow, earning a cry from her. ‘’But here? I have people who I can trust, people who will reach out their hand to me when I need help, who can and will support my goals, students _and_ staff. I won’t betray them for what I want, I will achieve it _with _them.’’

‘’If you truly trust them, why is the professor not among your class right now?’’

Claude froze; Edelgard stopped her attack, studying his expression. He used the same excuse he gave everyone. ‘’It's part of our strategy, you probably should have figured it out by now.’’

‘’A triple pincer, yes, taking my own idea and turning against me, it sounds clever, however, there's a small problem there, Claude, you of all people should know Rhea was well guarded.’’ Damn it, she saw right through him, ‘’Furthermore, if you planned to strike me, having the professor supporting you here would've been easier, after all Lysithea could very well teleport the two of you here. But instead here you stand, alone, and constantly glancing at your sides, where the Golden Deer and the Blue Lions are, hoping for reinforcements, but never at the center, where the Professor is. Why is that?’’

‘’Most of the troops are at the center, so there's no point expecting help from there, at least not for now.’’

‘’And yet you sent your best asset there, knowing you wouldn't be able to rely on her.’’ Claude broke eye contact, and she smiled the moment he did, realizing she had caught him.

‘’You noticed it too, did you not.’’

‘’I don't know what you're talking about.’’

‘’Don't you _dare _give me that, Claude,’’ Edelgard responded, her tone angrier than Claude had ever seen her. ’’You know very well something happened in the Tomb, enough for you to not trust her with your class in the heat of battle.’’

Claude sighed, looking around, as if someone could hear them in the middle of this war. ‘’Teach changed, yeah. I have no clue what is going on, but she's compromised. I prefer keeping her where I can see instead of on my blind spot. Last time we heard of someone's personality changing, Jeralt got a knife on his back.’’

‘’The church did that to her, the change happened during the revelation, whatever Rhea meant by that.’’ Edelgard got closer to him, ‘’Don't you see, Claude? The church is playing with people as if their lives mean nothing, using them for whatever sick plans they have, and keeping Fódlan in a leash the entire time so they can have free reign.’’

He lowered his blade, breaking his stance completely and simply standing still. It wasn't just the Holy Tomb, even before then, she somehow cut open a hole through the skies themselves to force herself out of a curse, her hair and eyes having changed. Back then she'd tell him all about how the Goddess had been communicating with her, how she gave Byleth all of her powers and merged with her. Claude had a hard time believing it, especially as it meant everything the Church was preaching was true, or at least a good part of it.

But even then he could still see his professor in those eyes, unlike her after the Holy Tomb, who looked as if she wasn’t even there anymore. And then there was Jeralt's Diary, where the late captain made clear Rhea had done _something _to Byleth.

All dots connected, but the result was still too difficult to guess, or maybe it was because deep down Claude didn't want to find out, to learn what really happened to the person he'd grown to cherish as a leader, mentor and friend. ‘’I can't trust the teach or the church, I don't know what they did to her, but she's clearly not the same person I trusted with my life.’’ He said, the metal hidden in his sleeve shining in the light of the fires surrounding them.

Edelgard stopped the dagger mere inches from her face, holding Claude's arm by the wrist with inhuman strength. ‘’However I can't trust you either, since you've sided with those monsters like Solon and Kronya. For all I know, you and those bastards replaced Teach like you did to Tomas and Monica.’’

Claude tried desperately to force his hand further, even putting his other hand on the pommel of the dagger, to push it, but Edelgard's grip was absolute, almost crushing his wrist, as he screamed both from pain and the sheer strain he was putting in his muscles trying to dig the dagger further. Her face was the scariest part, however, as she didn't look neutral anymore, she finally showed some emotion: pure hate.

‘’Do not put me on the same level as those people, and do not _dare _to imply I would do that to her.’’ Her tone was ice cold. ‘’You would _never _understand what I had to do to get here, what I went through just to stand where I am.’’ She grabbed his other arm, easily pulling it away from the dagger and forcing it down, almost risking breaking it, as Claude screamed in agony. ‘’I have sided with them out of desperation, you sided with the church out of your own free will, even knowing what they did to her. I am _nothing_ like them, and much less like _you_.’’

Desperate, Claude bent his knees, Edelgard still keeping him in the air with her ridiculous strength, even when his legs weren’t supporting him on the ground anymore, and kicked her with both feet, managing to push her away, and dropping on the floor.

Without missing a beat, he moved, dodging another axe swing, he grabbed some dirt and threw it straight at her face. Her eyes reflexively widened in surprise before clenching, which was enough to get some of it in them.

Hearing her curse as she swung that axe wildly, attempting to clean her eyes with her shield hand, Claude grinned, putting both hands on his sword and slicing lower, at her thigh, close to the knee, and a hissing from Edelgard informed him he'd hit jackpot.

His celebration was short lived as Edelgard in response slammed her giant shield into his entire frame, throwing him into a wall shoulder first. It hurt, really badly, Claude was sure he had dislocated his shoulder, if not flat out broken it. He had no time to ponder how he'd even fight like that, as Edelgard, taking the time now to clean the dirt properly, fired another Thoron at him.

Throwing away any stealth, he simple ran, not looking back as she fired more blasts of magic at him, the pain burning in his shoulder keeping him from being able to think properly, it also dulled his senses, as he tripped on a small piece of debris and fell into the ground.

He'd almost hope the fall would put his shoulder back in place, but no such luck it seemed. He could only watch as Edelgard closed in, axe in hand.

‘’You've fought well, Claude, and I agree with some of your ideals.’’ She raised her axe above her, not even bothering to aim at a specific point of his body, as long as it connected him, which it would, he was as good as dead. ‘’But an outsider like you, who does not understand the struggles of this land has no right to change it, much less lecture me on what is right or wrong.’’

Claude wished he could close his eyes, he really did, but his mind was firing on all cylinders, eyes roaming the entire place looking for a way out, even if he knew there was none. He'd have to watch his own brutal death in full; all he could do was grit his teeth and wince as Edelgard's axe swung down.

It never connected with his flesh, instead, the wall of a nearby building _exploded _from the inside, a blur of blue and black instantly closing in on Edelgard with what looked like a lance and _slamming _it into her shield, which she brought up at the last second to block; the loud clang of the weapons clashing echoed, along with a psychotic laughter, the sheer power of metal meeting metal leaving both spear and shield vibrating for several seconds.

Looking at the person who just joined the fray, he was met with the view of Dimitri forcing a scythe-like spear into Edelgard's shield with enough strength to tear a hole through it as if it were made of paper.

He used the scythe as a hook, to pull the shield away from her, it falling on the ground behind him; Dimitri didn't even notice Claude from the look of it, he was entirely focused on Edelgard.

‘’So, how will it be?’’ He asked her, his eyes cold and filled with nothing but killing intent. ‘’Your head crushed, your neck sliced wide open, or your miserable black heart run through with my blade. How do you wish to die, Edelgard?’’

Edelgard, for her credit, didn't seem afraid by it, even with Dimitri's anger being entirely focused on her. ‘’I'm not afraid of death, Dimitri, but it is not in my plans to die until I am done.’’

Dimitri laughed, it was loud enough to be heard through the screams of fighting around them. ‘’That's rich, but I don't remember giving you that option.’’ He gripped his spear with both hands, assuming his stance. ‘’Very well, I assume you're allowing me to pick it for you then. How about I _rip your beating heart out of your chest with my bare hands, then crush it right in front of your dying eyes?!_’’ He spat, charging directly at her.

The two clashed, Edelgard blocking his strike with her axe, not having a shield anymore, but being pushed back, Dimitri's strength being too much even for her. While these two MONSTERS fought, Claude took the chance to run through the small pouch in his waist, where he found a single bottle of vulnerability between several broken ones. Drinking the contents, he could feel his wounds being healed, but the arm still hurt and limped, not broken then, but the potion, while healing his wounds, couldn’t put the bone back in place.

''Great, this is going to be fun.'' Claude groaned, placing a hand on the bone, testing it.

‘’From what we learned it should be like… THIS’’ A loud fleshy sound followed as he applied pressure to the spot, forcing the bone back in place. He held back the scream of pain as he readjusted the bone, falling to his knees. ‘’Dear Goddess, they forgot to tell us how much this hurts.’’

Spinning his arm to test it, he felt no pain beyond the lingering one from putting it back in place, and he could move it well again. Thanks to the potion, he was also partially healed from the worst injuries.

His attention turned to the two house leaders screaming behind him, Edelgard was trying to push the axe into Dimitri's head, her other hand keeping the spear from stabbing her side, with Dimitri keeping her axe away with his own hand, while the other pushed the spear into her. Grabbing his bow again, Claude hopped into action, getting some distance between the two to take his aim.

Dimitri had enough of that and kicked Edelgard in the knee, tripping her as she screamed in agony from the force; Claude was surprised it didn't break her kneecap right then and there. But far from being done, she managed to twist her axe free and slam the blunt end of it into Dimitri's ear, disorienting him; which only made him angrier if the scream was anything to go by, followed by him grabbing the downed Edelgard by the shoulders and _flinging _her into the wall behind Claude, who jumped out of the way at the last second, as her back smashed into it.

‘’Hey I’m trying to _help _here!’’

Dimitri didn’t even listen, instead he threw himself into her before she could get up, tackling her _through _the wall, both falling and rolling on the ground around the debris as they kept punching and kicking where they could. It was insane, Claude couldn't aim his shots properly without risking hitting Dimitri, and he couldn't even try to guess where to land the shot because right now predicting the prince's moves was as good as shooting blindfolded.

Edelgard kicked Dimitri from her, firing a Fireball in his chest for good measure, which earned a pained grunt from him, as he made to reach her again. In response, Edelgard grabbed her shield from the ground and tried smashing it into Dimitri, who in response backhanded punched it, breaking the entire thing, the armor in his arm, and from the looks of it, the flesh in Dimitri’s arm.

Dimitri was a mess, his uniform was cut and burned everywhere, his head was bleeding, dyeing red some of his hair, which was falling into his face, and his arm looked like it had burst inside out from punching that shield with all his strength, a long line of exposed flesh going from his elbow to his wrist. Edelgard wasn't much better, she HAD to be at her limit too, and Claude, having taken a vulnerability, had healed all severe wounds, but still didn't cover for all the damage he took.

_‘’This is a war of attrition right now, all Dimitri and I need to do is to outlast Edelgard. If Dimitri doesn't kill himself first that is.’’_

He took his aim and shot, forcing Edelgard to move. Ignoring his arm, Dimitri took this chance and dashed at her, spear in hand. She managed to slap the spear away, pushing it down and making Dimitri's momentum stab the ground full force, stopping him dead in his track and earning a grunt from the sheer force of the spear's speed being broken. Claude fired another arrow, which she _grabbed _and stabbed in Dimitri's shoulder, turning to the archer and firing a fireball straight at him in response.

Claude hopped away from the blast, firing three arrows at once, while Dimitri ripped the spear off the ground, carving a hole on the pavement from his brutish way of pulling it out, the debris from it blinding Edelgard to Claude's shot; which meant even when she managed to parry two of the arrows, a third still hit her leg, forcing her to her knees.

‘’It's the end, witch.’’ Dimitri moved, spear aimed at Edelgard's head, killing intent clear.

A large burst of light showered the area, throwing Dimitri and Edelgard away, and making Claude scream in agony from what he soon realized was a piece of pavement hitting his hand, breaking at least half his fingers.

Edelgard got up, breathing heavily, her robes burned, finally exposing her armor,. Through the agony, Claude managed to realize she had fired a fireball straight down, just to make some distance from Dimitri, clear from the crater that formed where they were standing and the fire spreading around the area.

Getting up, Claude threw his bow away, firing arrows was out of question now, as even if he managed to power through the agony and load his bow, his hand was shaking from the pain.

Instead, the schemer ripped his yellow cape and used the cloth to tie a dagger to his broken hand, tying it up with his good hand and teeth. His free hand then fell to his sword. Dimitri was already on his feet, and looking like he could collapse at any minute, but the prince didn't show any desire to stop the attack.

‘’Do you have any vulnerabilities with you?’’ Claude asked Dimitri, without turning to him.

‘’I'm good.’’ He wasn't. Claude could tell. The poor man was completely lost in his own trauma, unable to see anything beyond his fixation. If it kept going he'd die soon, and Claude would follow him; he needed to end this quick and drag Dimitri away from this hell.

Throwing away what remained of the robes and grabbing her axe once again, Edelgard faced the duo who stood before her, Claude with a sword and dagger, Dimitri with that scythe spear thing, gripping it so hard the enormous wound in his arm was leaking blood from the force and pressure applied to the limb.

Somehow she was still the least damaged of the trio, her crest maybe? It didn't matter, as she stared at them, eyes filled with nothing but resolve, challenging them.

''Bring it.''

/-/

She dodged another strike, ducking low and using the momentum of getting back up to slam her fist into the soldier’s chin, throwing him into the floor; another soon followed and was just as quickly dispatched, and another, and another, and another.

Cichol was fighting the leader of the group of Wyvern knights, the two dancing above them, dodging the incoming wave of arrows and spells that were thrown at them with no concern for who it’d hit.

_‘’This isn’t going to end anytime soon, Edelgard planned for this so she has plenty of reinforcements prepared to crush us on sheer numbers. Claude and the others at this point must be already facing her, which means I need to get there to help them finish her off.’’_

A brief flash of memories flooded her thoughts, almost blinding her for a moment.

/-/

_‘’I appreciate the worry professor, but I am fine, I assure you.’’_

_ ‘’You say that and yet your movements are sloppy.’’ Byleth frowned, which really meant her brows furrowed a millimeter and nothing else. ‘’Are the nightmares back?’’_

_Edelgard’s eyes widened, she looked around to make sure no one else was listening. ‘’How do you…?’’_

_‘’One night I was off doing some errands,’’ she recounted, ‘’On my way back I heard you screaming. I don’t think anyone else did however, it wasn’t really LOUD, but for anyone with trained ears, it was obviously a scream of horror.’’_

_‘’I…’’ She averted her eyes from the professor, ‘’Could you not tell anyone else about this?’’_

_‘’It’s not my business anyways.’’_

_‘’I thank you.’’ She sighed. ‘’And yes… I do seem to be struggling with nightmares, childish, I know, but-’’_

_‘’It’s not childish, Edelgard.’’ The professor placed a hand on the future emperor’s shoulder, who almost jumped at the gesture. ‘’You have a lot on your shoulders, with your position and your training here, and yet you keep a strong face, making sure to never show any weakness or fear; the stress had to manifest somehow.’’_

_‘’Y-Yes, but for the future emperor of the Adrestian Empire to-‘’_

_‘’Emperor or not, you’re still human, Edelgard.’’_

_Whatever words she had died in her mouth right there and then; she remained quiet, staring at her professor and pondering about what she had said. Afterwards, she smiled, not a proud or vicious smile, not the smile of a great invincible emperor, but the soft smile of a girl who heard just the words she needed to._

_‘’I thank you professor, you do really have a way with your words.’’_

_‘’It’s nothing, and may I suggest, before sleeping, try drinking some tea, preferably with a friend. It’ll help you relax and give you comfortable thoughts before sleep.’’_

_She chuckled, ‘’In that case, professor, would you mind having some tea with me tonight?’’_

_Byleth gave her a small smile_

_‘’It’d be my pleasure.’’_

/-/

An incoming strike blindsided her, she managed to lift her sword just in time to clumsily block it before it cut her head off. However, the unbalanced force made her stumble, the next strike making her drop on the ground entirely

_‘’Ah Professor, thank you for the nice chat, for the first time in a few weeks I had a quite peaceful night of sleep.’’_

She rolled, dodging an axe that cleaved the ground where she stood, then attempting to regain her footing, she lost it again having to block another sword strike, with enough force to send her back to the ground.

_‘’It was an honor to face you in this battle, professor, I see you truly are worthy of the Sword of the Creator’’_

She threw several fireballs, not even aiming properly, just hoping to gain some distance. A mage responded Sothis in kind, unleashing a Bolganone she barely dodged.

_‘’Bergamot? That’s my favorite! How did you know professor?’’_

It was useless, her focus was completely shattered, Byleth’s memories kept flooding back, grief, betrayal, pain, all these emotions twisted inside of her, all because of Edelgard. She knew Edelgard had to be stopped, that she was a danger to all she held dear.

And yet Byleth’s body couldn’t help but mourn it, remember her of how Edelgard was as dear to Byleth as the very students Sothis swore to protect.

‘’I can’t… Byleth I’m sorry but I may have no choice… She’s too…’’

She could feel her nausea return.

‘’Please, I’m sorry, I can’t… I can’t save her.’’

A sword slash threw her divine sword out of her hands, leaving her on the ground, helpless as the enemy prepared to deliver the finishing blow.

‘’Please Byleth…’’

/-/

Rhea watched it all with a solemn expression, all this bloodshed, this chaos, the people she’d sworn to protect, people who she considered allies, fighting and dying before her eyes, blood spilled in the sacred grounds she spent so long building, the sanctuary of her mother.

Her mother, heavens, she was there too, she was fighting, dirtying her own hands, her own mother, a peaceful gentle being who never deserved any of this. And all because of her. Rhea had caused it all, she was the reason all of this was happening, and now she could only sit back and watch it happen.

She'd killed Byleth, she knew that, and what disgusted her the most was how it wasn't an action done in the heat of emotion, not a sudden idea while she was overwhelmed with uncontrollable feelings, but a cold calculated move, something she'd planned and thought over and over.

She couldn't help but feel frustration at how until the very moment her mother called her out on it, she'd not consider ''Byleth'' a person, but simply her mother's reincarnation, a mere fragment of a bigger whole, she saw Byleth as nothing but Sothis without her memories. She'd even share many of Sothis' quirks and traits. And yet, as she'd find out, Byleth wasn't a simple personality gained from the lack of memory, but her own person. One she wasn't even aware of until killing her.

She did not plan for her mother's vessel to become her own person, to have her own soul, but even then, what had she planned for? Her attempts to revive Sothis were mostly desperate and insane, she'd been working on mere assumptions this entire time.

Rhea was so quick to assume, so quick to hold dear to any chance her mother could be back, she'd take any similarities as proof and ignore the small differences as just oddities and nothing more, and now, the more she thought about it, the more she'd remember the differences, how clear they were. How blinded was she?

And what scared her most was thinking of what she would have done if she had known Byleth wasn't Sothis, but a whole different soul.

Deep down she knew she wouldn't have done anything different, not when she was so close to get her mother back.

_They were there to take her mother from her again._

As she watched the knights who had sworn to protect her, who she had given blood to —in another horrifying idea of her, not unlike what the accursed elites did— slaughtered anyone who attempted to get close to her, she couldn't even see her mother anymore.

_Edelgard would get to her and butcher her like Nemesis did so long ago._

The children were fighting, her own sibling and niece were there too, her poor niece who had just returned from a painful injury, and was then kidnapped, where they did heavens know what to her.

_They invaded the holy tomb and stole the hearts of her siblings, they attempted to steal her mother's remains, and now she was here to destroy all that she built. Edelgard was here to kill her mother. All she had done would be for nothing._

She tried to keep her composure, her breath was anything but steady, and her hands, linked before her as she would always do, trembled, her grip growing stronger to hide it, she felt the nails of her right hand digging into the skin of her left, as she kept them linked. She wanted to be there, she wanted to stop it once and for all.

_She wanted to rip that accursed Hresvelg to shreds and spill the blood she gave to this lineage into the monastery's floor._

She could see Demonic Beasts, no doubt made from the very crest stones that were stolen from the Holy Tomb, their very remains desecrated once again, insulting the very race that fought and saved these people a millennia ago, insulting her own mother, who had given her powers to heal the land from humanity's hubris.

_The battlefield was changing, becoming an open mountainous terrain, the soldiers had stronger weapons, weapons that glowed an unnatural light, that moved and pulsated, weapons which she deep down could hear shrieking in agony, as if they were forced into this continuous existence, crying in pain. And in the middle of it all, the man who took it all from her._

No, she had to focus, the enemies were getting closer to her, it was time she began to move too, as her personal guard prepared to launch an attack; Cyril on her right, ready to give his life to protect her. Cyril, a mere child she all but kidnapped and brainwashed into serving her, into becoming her own shield and worshipping her. And Catherine on her right, a warrior who believed she owes her life to Rhea, who's loyalty Rhea had abused over and over, more than happy to have a Heroes Relic at her disposal, more than happy to turn a person who adored her into a weapon to point at her enemies.

When the enemies broke the front lines, she finally found her mother again. Her beautiful green hair was painted red in blood, she looked terrified, no, horrified. She had been fighting, her mother had to KILL to survive; the purest most gentle soul in all of Fódlan, forced to murder because humanity just had to refuse her life, reject her existence once again.

She could feel a sharp pain in her left hand, it seemed as if she dug her nails deep enough to draw blood.

_She shouldn't be here, she should have never been put in this situation, Edelgard made her a target and forced her to take lives, forced her to kill._

Something inside her snapped as she saw her mother, who was struggling, alone and helpless, get thrown back by the sheer force of her attacker, the sword she was killed for — and now forced to use to defend herself, in a sick twist of fate — thrown away. The soldier made notice of it and overextended his sword, prepared to slain her. Sothis froze in panic.

_In Rhea's eyes, the man slowly became bulkier, older, his eyes filled with a tainted red glow, and his sword, stained in blood, the blood of her siblings, was glowing like fire, from her mother's powers, coming from a crest stone with the symbol of Sothis' flames in its center, which he had ripped from her chest. HE was going to take her mother from her again._

** _''Stay away from her, STAY AWAY FROM HER STAY AWAY FROM HER''_ **

Her blood boiled, literally, she could feel her body transform, the power coursing through her veins not just activated by her, OVERWHELMING her; the soldiers around her cried her name in shock, but she paid no mind to them, her vision was funneled on a single man, the man who had ruined her life so long ago. The entire world was red, however the light of the fires, the blood that stained the ground, the Empire's uniform colors, neither of them were as red as Rhea's view right now.

_ **N̷̨̢̧̡̼͇̬̞͇͌͋̂̓̿̈́̈́͠ͅO̷̢̟̍̎̓ ̵̤̍̊̍̽̎̄͊͋̿͜O̷̝̘̩̳̠͇̺̓͜ͅṊ̷̻̣̩̖͎͎͔̖̓̑̊̏͋͆̿͜E̵̢̨̠̠̙͔̫̠̹͒͋̈́̈́̚ ̸̡̩͕̫̒͛ͅẄ̸͉͚͍͌̈̿̒̾͌̊I̸̱͠Ḷ̷̓͂̿͆̔͠Ļ̷̢̧̣͈̻̫̹͔͇̭͋̓̅͌͝͝ͅ ̶͎͚̯̞̦̝̞̓̓T̵̡̲̭̣̲͍̏͛͛̈̇̒̕A̴̡̧̢̢̼̬̞̖̪̗̖̹͖̒̉́̑K̷̡̡̡̬̼̠͇̬̗͖̟̓̑̿̌̅̐͆̏̚ͅE̷̡̧̨͚͕̖̼͔̤͚̠͎̊̑͆̚ ̵̗͙̮̝̦̭͔̳̾̌͑̚͘H̸̨̡̨̜̲̮̟̊̊̍̈́͊̃̍̓͒͘E̸͔̻̥͉͕̘̘̺̙̲̮͇̿̈́̿̓̀̆̐̓͋͗͜͝͝R̶̰͇͂̽͌ ̸̢͍̼͐͛́̎̔̎̆̋̄͆̎̚͝F̶͙̱̖͇̙̮̜͕̻̈́̈̊͑͋́̽̆͋̌̐͘͝Ȑ̵̖̝͔͕͈̱͙͔̰̻̠̃̿̏̉̓͊͝͠ͅÓ̸̜͈̦̳̔͒͋̍̒̏̈̌͒̔̐͜͝M̵͙̭͉͈̟͇̫͉͛ ̴̯̝͎̰̮̘̙̝̼̦̤̩̗̇͘͝M̴̘̘͑E̵̝͙͛ ̶̛͔̱̲̯̘̯̭̖̺̤͔̊̅͐̀͑͊̇̈́̓̑ͅẺ̷̙̫͔̆͌͗̊̀͠͝͝V̷̖̙̈̄̃̅̀͊̄̓̒̽̚Ẹ̵̡͍̳̬̙̥̿̈͒͌̆̏̂͑͛̆̒̌̔͜R̸̟͍̼̭̰̙̯̻̗̈́͐̒̅̑̍̈͂̐͌͂̐ ̵̫̣̀͂̑̀͘̚A̸̢͖͗́Ĝ̷̗̫̣̈̎̇̓̈́̅̉Ǎ̶̧̙̮͈̣̣̞̤̣̬̗͉Į̵̥͙̭͇̪̦͖͚̋̊̃̐͝ͅṈ̷̛͚̙͕͍̥͎̳̣̥͍͈͆͜** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me after finishing writing this fight: What do you MEAN Edelgard can't use Thoron.  
Writing Dimitri here is quite difficult, because on one hand I can't just ignore his presence in this fight, much less remove his violent fighting style, but at the same time I don't want to be insensitive in depicting him, considering his current brutality comes from his unchecked mental illness.  
It's actually hilarious that I expected all of this to fit into one chapter, when in actuality I had to split the chapter AGAIN because it was getting too long, so what was originally chapter 5 is now 5, 6 and soon to be 7.  
That said, this chapter is the main reason why the split happened in the first place. Edelgard vs Claude and Dimitri was a long battle that I just kept adding more and more to it as I went on (it was literally the first thing I wrote of the chapter as well), character moments, small dialogue, details, correcting stuff to match what I added in the chapter afterwards, so it took some space on the chapter, and it's not even done yet.  
In hindsight the split is for the better, as it means I can develop and explore better this chapter's cliffhanger with an entire chapter focused on it instead of forcing it to share space with three other factions fighting.  
Next chapter FOR SURE THIS TIME, will be the conclusion of this battle, and we'll get to see what other characters are doing, including a certain class that has yet to be seen in this fight, hm? 
> 
> Fun fact: Literally all I had written for Rhea's monologue at the end on my notes was just ''Rhea goes apeshit''.


	7. End of the Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The war descends into further chaos, as Sothis attempts to fix her first mistake before it's too late.

Sothis prepared her fire magic in desperation, she didn’t know if it could work properly in her current state, much less kill her current enemy, but she had to do _something _before the strike killed her.

However the strike never came.

Instead, all she saw was pure hellfire, as a beam of light _anihilated _the soldier, pushing her away from the sheer force of it, and continuing its path until it pierced the horizon beyond, its limits unseen. It then moved up, splitting the skies in two, until it finally vanished, leaving a long crater and several annihilated houses in its path. No bodies, as none who crossed its path had anything left of them.

''Oh no...''

Before even turning, she had already realized what was happening. Rhea's transformation was roaring, shattering the glasses in every remaining building, shrapnel hitting both armies. Her form was different, she looked as if she was boiling, and she WAS, for steam was coming out of her body, and pieces of her skin were peeling off; not that she even seemed to notice or care.

_''STAY AWAY FROM HER''_ Rhea's voiced boomed, several soldiers stopping in awe and fear at her true power. Not just for that, Sothis noticed, some soldiers were actually falling to their knees in pain. Their armors were cracking, revealing white skin under them, wings were sprouting from several knights, who shrieked in agony from their transformation. Cichol arrived on his wyvern, looking almost as pale as the skin of these beasts.

''What is going on here?''

''Oh gods...'' Cichol managed to mutter. ''Rhea's losing control of her powers!''

''She had _kept_ her powers for this long?'' Sothis shouted over the roars coming from every direction. Normally her children, if they were allowed to live their whole lives, would either lose their humanoid form, or their draconian form, as they couldn't keep the power forever in the human form and would either have to forego it or accept it definitively, it was never a problem in their old days, they’d keep their minds and would still act the same as always, no matter which form they chose to remain as. ‘’How?”

For Rhea to have managed to keep her power for all this long, combined with her mental state, it did not bode well. The mental stress she must have been going through thanks to their current situation, combined with the stress her body was going through no doubt finally reached their breaking point. Something had to give, and Rhea's fragile mental state had snapped, her body following right afterwards.

''I didn't know that either! By gods I have never seen her, nor any other Nabatean like this…''

Sothis had, sadly enough, bulging veins, skin and flesh burning hot, almost mindless rage, and untold powers, it was the her blood provoking a chain reaction into the person’s body, the Nabateans, as blessed as they are, were still mortals after all, they can’t handle the full extent of her divine power. It was the body forcing itself into its strongest form in hopes to resist the sheer amount of power flooding it, but even in that form, the power is slowly killing them, making them go in a blind rampage.

That Seiros’ mental state was anything but healthy sure did not help things.

He turned to the white beasts now swarming the monastery, ''Oh no, she gave some of her blood to the most loyal knights, her personal guard... This means...''

''That now since her blood is overloading in power, so is the one in their bodies.'' Sothis finished, horrified. ''We have to stop her.''

''Mother...’’ Cichol sagged, the look he gave her was nothing short of horrified. ‘’The only way to stop would be to-''

''No.'' Sothis cut him off. ''We are NOT going there. Not yet...'' She turned to Seiros, who was beginning to flap her wings, the winds created by it pushing away everyone around her. ''I’ll try reaching her, if she sees me hopefully it will be enough to calm her down.''

''That is too dangerous, mother, if she kills you t-''

''Then you proceed with the original plan and put her out of her misery.''

Before Cichol could even give his input, she was already running, Seiros had already taken flight, and Sothis was chasing her, no soldier from any side standing in her way as the confusion escalated into mass panic.

The central area was the one where the knights were mainly located on, which meant it was where the white beats, gruesome parodies of her children’s original forms, were swarming, roaring and attacking everything in sight. She was at the very least relieved that them being there meant the students would be safe for now, if they hadn’t already evacuated given the current situation.

While she focused on the madness in front of her, she couldn’t help the thought at the back of her head on how she was ill and barely able to move not even a few minutes ago, and yet there she was now, running full sprint amidst all the hellfire, chasing a Nabatean going through a power meltdown.

A beast exploded from the inside of a building, the debris forcing Sothis to sidestep, allowing Seiros to get some distance. And now it blocked her path.

‘’Curses, by the time I defeat this thing, IF I can defeat this thing, she’ll be long gone!’’ She felt her power surging into the sword, fueling it to its limit, as her eyes focused entirely on her daughter, ignoring the beast dashing her direction. ‘’Alright you stupid sword, let’s see if you can be used for anything _besides _destruction!’’

She extended her sword to its very limits as it swung forward, completely missing the beast, which easily dodged it, good, Sothis thought, it was never the main target.

The chain twisted around Seiros’ rear legs, her skin too rough for it to simply cut it, but the sword’s sharp segmented blades were still enough to firmly dig into it, pulling Sothis into the sky, as she desperately held into the blade with a surprised scream.

‘’Alright, maybe I should’ve thought of this better!’’ She couldn’t see, the wind currents making Byleth’s messy hair block her view. She pulled back her power, forcing the chain to retract and her with it, as she slammed into her daughter’s leg, almost letting go of the pommel in the process, digging her hand into the leg to keep herself steady.

‘’Alright, I’m here… Now what?’’

She had no clue, she didn’t plan that far, as much as she hated to admit. She couldn’t repeat the process to scale further, as releasing the sword’s grip from the leg would just make it drop before she could catch it. And even attempting to catch it could very well result in her falling to her death.

‘’Seiros! Please! Stop this!’’ She couldn’t hear it, heck, Sothis couldn’t hear herself, between the winds, the chaos and Seiros’ own agonizing roars, it was surprising anyone still had eardrums left.

‘’THIS was your plan?!’’ A familiar voice shouted, even amidst said chaos. She turned to see Cichol, chasing after them in his Wyvern, looking somewhere between furious and frustrated. She saw her chance.

‘’Cichol, grab!’’ She shouted, kicking the sword’s chain, forcing it out of its lock around Seiros’ leg.

‘’Grab wha-AGH!’’ He moved his neck at the very last second, before it could stab him right between the eyes, managing to grab the pommel even then, thanks to his reflexes. ‘’What the HELL are you d- AH!’’ The sudden shift in weight when she herself landed on the wyvern, having dropped off the leg and landing right behind him, was enough to surprise him.

‘’You do know _she's_ the one we’re trying to take down, right?!’’

‘’I can’t reach her on my own, much less cripple her enough to stop this madness, and I doubt your Wyvern can either.’’ She said, already elaborating a plan, ignoring her child’s whining, ‘’However, my sword’s range and power should be enough to get her wings, think you can maneuver and get me a good shot?’’

‘’And then what? Even if we remove her flight, there’s still the issue of her transformation.’’

‘’I have an idea… And I’m pretty sure you’ll hate it.’’

Cichol sighed, looking below at the war that was slowly becoming a maddening free for all, every side stopping their fighting to try and survive the white beasts. ‘’Well it’s not like this was shaping up to be my favorite day anyways.’’

/-/

Her arrow pierced the knight’s neck, blood spraying as he fell dead on the floor. And then another; and another; and another.

It felt like years since Bernadetta had been horrified by fighting, let alone killing someone; and yet here she stood, with her own battalion, slaughtering anyone who came their way, her hair and clothes soaked in blood, her hands shaky, and yet firm enough to kill anyone in her crosshairs.

She was still afraid, terrified, she could feel her thoughts spiraling out of control and her mind burning with several what ifs and maybes, every possible scenario playing constantly. She pushed all of those to the back of her mind with relative ease; and yet the archer couldn’t for the life of her tell if it was a good or bad thing.

Caspar was screaming ahead, she could see his blue hair, next to a familiar green haired mage, punching someone’s skull so hard they fell dead instantly. Petra was further ahead, no doubt cutting down anyone in her sight, Ferdinand with her, as they took the lead in the charge on the outer walls.

They were all surprisingly quiet, their faces somber and neutral, or as neutral as some could be, in the middle of such carnage. This place was their home for five months, and yet having found out what they did, they couldn’t help but feel nothing but hate for it, wishing to see it burning down.

Maybe it was because they were in the outer walls that those feelings were easily flowing, no doubt being on the inside would make it much harder for them to tear the place apart. It was what Edelgard told them anyways, for her it was always a place she hated, so she had no personal connection to it, from day one she and Hubert were fully aware one day they’d bring it down. The only thing they truly cared there were the people, the bonds they’ve made.

The bonds Lady Rhea’s work had cost them.

She sighed, closing her eyes, the memory still fresh and fueling her.

/-/

They were still in their class, Caspar was pacing around, clearly trying to keep his mind out of things, but all he was doing is making everyone else anxious. Dorothea was looking out the window, watching the guards run around the monastery in a rush. Lindhart was next to her, the usually sleepy mage unusually awake and interested in what was happening. Ferdinand was trying to calm everyone down, talking about how it was probably just a drill, about how it was all going to be fine.

It wasn’t really convincing.

Petra was surprisingly the only one calm, her nerves of absolute steel in full display, as she merely stood next to the door, waiting for any instructions. Bernadetta wished she could have anything of the sort, as she was cuddled up on the ground, her hoodie covering her head as she laid her back into one of the room’s pillars, shaking.

‘’We’re under attack, they’re, gonna get us, of course they are, they’re after us all, we helped the professor and the Golden Deer, we made ourselves targets!’’ She kept mumbling, ignoring Ferdinand’s desperate attempts to calm her, ‘’Oh Bernie! Why did you try to help her? She never needed your help, she’s the Professor! All you did was make your life worse! I bet she could’ve had an EASIER time without having to worry about you!’’

Professor Manuela was nowhere to be seen, the moment a Knight of Seiros informed her the Holy Tomb had been invaded, she cursed and darted out of the room, telling them to stay there and wait for further commands. There were several complaints and whining, but she made it clear these were orders from Seteth, no one daring to challenge the Arch Bishop’s right hand man.

The atmosphere was already tense, the people who had caused so much trouble to them, the ones they had faced at least once in these five months, on missions with Professor Byleth, had infiltrated their school. The place they’d call home, where they felt safe around, was easily invaded, and from the looks of it, not by a single person, unlike the Death Knight’s attack several months ago.

That had already left them shaky, but after it the monastery was supposed to be on high alert. And yet here they are, an actual army had broken through, and into what was supposed to be the safest place in the entire building.

They didn’t know what to expect, who to face, or what to do.

And it didn’t help that Edelgard was nowhere to be seen, much less Hubert.

‘’She’s probably with the professor right now, my friends, helping her take down whatever threat has infiltrated our school!’’ Ferdinand proudly said, once again attempting to lighten the mood.

‘’Or she was ambushed and murdered.’’ Lindhart said, not so helpfully.

_‘’Lindhart!’’_

‘’What? It’s a possibility. Were they not attacked by bandits a while back? Why I recall Edelgard saying the professor had saved her life from what would be a fatal injury at one point.’’

Ferdinand and Dorothea flashed him a glare, but he did not seem to care. ‘’Edelgard is one of the strongest students, the easiest way to take her down would be to divide and conquer, single her out and strike when we are not around her.’’

A chair scraped the floor, Dorothea having had enough.

‘’I’m not just going to sit here and wait. I’m going out there.’’

‘’Yeah!’’ Caspar shouted, ‘’We need to be there, it’s our chance to take these evildoers out once and for all!’’

Ferdinand stood between them and the door, blocking their exit with his body. ‘’Please you two! Look at what you are about to do! Not only it’s risky, but you’re about to go against Lady Rhea’s orders!’’

Bernie wanted to sink into the floor, she could feel a fight was about to break out.

‘’Out of the way Ferdinand!’’

‘’I can’t allow you two to do this!’’

‘’This is your last warning Ferdie, don’t make us do this!’’

‘’Please be calming yourselves!’’

‘’Caspar get away from the door!’’

‘’Don’t tell me what to do Lindhart! We NEED to be out the-‘’

Before the arguing could devolve into something worse, a flash of pink light blinded everyone in the room, two figures appearing in the center of it.

‘’Edie!’’ Dorothea exclaimed, clearly relieved; said relief soon died the moment she saw what the princess was wearing. ‘’You… No…’’

‘’Your Highness, are you _sure _this is wise?’’ Hubert questioned her, ignoring everyone’s shock, but clearly uncomfortable with it. It was the first time she’d seen Hubert shaken. ‘’They will find us in any moment, and after Dimitri’s little tantrum, our forces are all but gone.’’

She sighed, looking incredibly vulnerable while doing so, somehow contrasting hard with the armor she was wearing.

The Flame Emperor. Edelgard was the Flame Emperor.

‘’Edelgard, what is the meaning of this?!’’ Ferdinand stormed past Dorothea and Caspar, his last nerve finally gone. ‘’_You_ are the Flame Emperor?’’

‘’N-No, there has to be a mistake.’’ Dorothea said, grabbing him by the shoulder, trying to hold him back. ‘’R-Right, Edie? It’s all a mistake right?’’

Edelgard couldn’t meet her eyes.

‘’I am sorry, my friends. It is true.’’

‘’YOU WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL THAT?!’’ Caspar yelled, walking towards her and being blocked by Hubert, who quickly put himself between the two. ‘’Remire! Lonato! Flayn, Hell even the freaking murder of the Blade Breaker! You _allowed_ Monica to get here, SHE SAT IN CLASS RIGHT WITH US! It was all you!’’

‘’That’s not… I couldn’t control those events! If I could I of course would not have allowed them!’’

‘’What are you talking about?’’ Lindhart strolled, pulling Caspar back. ‘’So you’re _not _working with the likes of Solon?’’

‘’I…’’

‘’Trust me, Caspar, we hate these maggots as much as you do. That Lady Edelgard was forced to work with them shows the sheer desperation in her actions.’’

‘’Oh cry me a river, Hubert!’’ Caspar tried to push himself out of Lindhart’s grasp, but Petra soon joined him in holding the brawler back. ‘’So what? You don’t like them? Well that doesn’t change the fact you are working with them! You tried to _kill us_!’’

‘’We tried to make sure that wouldn’t happen.’’

‘’Oh that’s comforting!’’

She couldn’t take it anymore and finally stood up, her words silencing the entire room.

‘’W-Why…?’’

Edelgard’s eyes met hers, and she could feel the regret and agony in them. The look of someone who’s been through hell and is still trying to pick up the pieces. One not so different from Bernadetta herself.

‘’Bernadetta… I…’’ She sighed. ‘’This place, this Church… It’s responsible for the Crest System. Lady Rhea and her cohorts have been keeping it for years, centuries. The system that has ruined your and my life.’’

‘’DON’T TRY TO MAKE THIS ABOUT ME!’’ She yelled, she was crying, she was afraid, she knew Edelgard and Hubert could very well kill her, kill all of them, but she already felt like a part of her had died. ‘’YOU PRETENDED TO BE OUR FRIEND!’’

‘’NO!’’ She snapped, visibly upset, ‘’You _are_ my friends! I… I truly cherished our time together!’’

‘’And yet you still tried to kill us behind our backs? Edelgard I hate the crest system, it ruined my life, but I wouldn’t kill the people who I care for just to get a swing at it!’’

Hubert seemed to grow even more tense by the minute. ‘’Your highness… We need to-‘’

‘’There’s more.’’

He remained silent.

‘’The Crest System, it’s being kept for a reason, not only that, the more I searched, the more I found, and trust me, it’s not a good sight. Fódlan is stuck in the Church’s grip for centuries, not only that, but the ones behind it have been playing with everyone’s lives.’’ She sighed, ‘’I hate that I had to sink as low as I did, I hate that I had to act the way I did… But I had no one else to turn to, no one else to rely on. The Church of Seiros is lying to all of you, and the ones behind it are not even human.’’

‘’What are you talking about?’’ Ferdinand asked, frustrated. ‘’What does this even change?’’

‘’I wish to change things, Ferdinand, and I’m sorry, but as it is now, I can’t do it through the system, not with the Church of Seiros breathing down our necks. I need to take it down, and release Fódlan from the grasp of the Crest System and the creatures that developed it.’’

‘’You tell us the church has been playing with our lives, but there’s no proof of that, is there?’’

‘’Ask Professor Byleth.’’

Those words silenced them all.

‘’What… Do you mean…?’’

‘’Rhea killed her, Ferdinand. She did _something _to her during the Revelation, by the time we got there she was gone.’’

‘’N-No…’’

‘’That doesn’t make sense…’’

‘’Does it not?’’ It was Hubert’s turn. ‘’She hired a mercenary to our school, gave her a sacred blade, and spoiled her as much as possible, giving her a position of power, forgiving any mistakes, twisting the rules to benefit her in any way possible. Why is that?’’

‘’She wanted something from the professor…?’’ Lindhart mused.

‘’Y-You’re lying!’’ Bernadetta cried, ‘’Just like you’ve been lying to us!’’

It couldn’t be true, Professor Eisner was a bit of an oddball, but she was strong, she wouldn’t let herself be fooled, much less killed so easy, the Arch Bishop be damned.

‘’Very well. I… I’m sorry for springing this on you considering your current feelings. But it is the truth. Rhea isn’t human, and neither is Seteth. They’re trying to keep us all subjugated, forcing their will on us and experimenting on people for their own designs, the professor just being their latest victim.’’

‘’Are you even _listening _to what you are saying?’’ Ferdinand roared

‘’I don’t believe you!’’

‘’And I understand that. It is a lot to take in. I want you guys to know that… The months we had spent together felt like the best times of my life. I know what you must be thinking, but for me it was real, and I loved every single day I could spend with you. I wish you could take my side in this, I really do, perhaps it would even allow me to break away from these cursed snakes I was forced to side with. But I can’t and won’t force that onto you.’’

She turned her back, fully exposing herself to any of them. And yet no one attempted to attack. Hubert prepared a spell, as a magic circle formed on the ground around them.

‘’In a month I shall attack the Monastery. Please, if you do not wish to join me, at least leave this place.’’

‘’A-A Month…?’’

Hubert turned to her, still working on the circle. ‘’A month my lady? But our forces-‘’

‘’They are enough, Hubert, but I don’t want enough.’’ She snapped at her retainer, ‘’I want to be one hundred percent sure this place… That _monster _is gone. That what she… What she did today never happens to anyone else ever again.’’

It was almost unnoticeable, but her voice cracked a bit, and her breathing was a bit unsteady. The fact she was crying didn’t seem to be lost on any of them. Much worse, for Bernadetta, was that the way she was doing it was all too familiar. A silent, subdued crying, one from someone who was afraid of being found out crying, or worse, someone who knew no one would save her, so couldn’t even bother trying to make noise anymore.

With that, they vanished, Edelgard turning her head to see them one last time amidst the light, confirming there were in fact tears flowing down her face.

After that, came five days of silence, both from them, the other classes and the monastery staff. Everyone was still coming to terms with what had happened, trying to do their own thing and avoiding thinking too hard. It felt… Fake, as if they were all thoughtless tools, merely doing whatever task was in front of them until they simply couldn’t anymore, no reaction or commentary. Some trained until they collapsed, some spent days locked away on the library studying.

Bernadetta couldn’t do even that, stuck in her room, no strength to even leave her bed. What were they going to do? It was not as if there were any classes, with Edelgard declaring war, their class splintered and the staff all but missing. But it was far from a relaxing period, between constantly waking up from nightmares, the panic attacks and the nausea keeping her from having any decent meal.

At some point, during that weekend, it all came down, on all of them, it seemed. She didn’t know why, but she felt the urge to go to their class, where she met every other remaining member of the Black Eagles, all pale like ghosts, exhausted beyond belief; she also felt like that, even if she hadn’t done anything for most of the week.

Ferdinand sat in his usual spot, hands linked before his face, as he seemed to be thinking of what to say. Caspar and Lindhart were chatting, but it felt somehow fake; there was no excited boasting, no annoyed sighs, just regular chatting. Petra was playing around with a knife, her nerves seemed to have finally gotten the better of her, as she looked as if she was about to be attacked, playing with the knife less to pass time and more to keep herself ready. And Dorothea was looking at the window, her gaze distant.

‘’They refuse to let anyone see her.’’ Ferdinand broke the agonizing silence, his voice wavering, so unlike his usual proud tone. ‘’Several students have been asking, the knights, the teachers whenever they’re around, and even Seteth. All share the same response; that she suffered an injury during the fight and is bedridden.’’

‘’Edelgard did it to her then,’’ Caspar snapped, ‘’She hurt her and tried using that to convince us, it’s obvious! She’s still trying to play us!’’

‘’I… Spoke to Claude.’’ Dorothea said, her eyes still lost in the window. ‘’He was there, he fought Edelgard and saw what happened… His… Story doesn’t match the one the knights are giving.’’

Everyone turned to her, as she slowly removed herself from the window, finally facing the class. ‘’According to him, the professor suddenly collapsed, started mumbling things that didn’t make sense, and passed out. All of this before Edelgard had even shown up.’’

‘’So then…’’ Bernadetta said, her mind racing as every word Dorothea said felt like it was being hammered into her skull. ‘’She was…?’’

‘’He also said Lady Rhea was surprisingly cheerful given the entire situation. That when the professor fell, she didn’t seem worried, the opposite, she looked as if she could barely contain her excitement, in his words, it was creepy.’’

‘’Why aren’t they telling this to the other students then?!’’ Caspar snapped, ‘’If the church is keeping secrets then w-‘’

‘’They were told by Lady Rhea that no one should speak of what had happened in the Holy Tomb beyond Edelgard’s attack; that the church would release an official statement to prevent further panic and chaos.’’ She looked around, as if the walls had ears. ‘’That leaking the truth is punishable with execution.’’

Silence fell into the room once more.

‘’What the hell…’’

Her legs were moving before she could think, swatting the door open, as she left the room in a desperate dash. Her classmates were after her if their screams were any giveaway.

‘’No, no no no no please no, no not her please…’’

The entire place felt empty, most students had returned home to escape the war, and the ones who stuck around were either training or resting after training, but even then, it wasn’t why it felt empty, no, there was a presence, someone who’d always been there, missing now. Someone who always offered to help, who never judged her, who had been patient and kind with her, who allowed her open up even when she herself felt she would never get better.

She stopped, barely able to stand, her stamina almost gone after that week, her body cursing her for all the meals she skipped, all the nights of sleep she didn’t manage to get, as if it was her fault she was unable to even _think _properly after all that had passed.

Two knights blocked the entrance to the second floor, where Lady Rhea’s quarters were.

Where they said the professor was resting, in the Arch Bishop’s personal care.

‘’No students are allowed past here, sorry.’’

‘’I-I want to see t-the professor.’’

The guards sighed, as if they had been used to the sight of a student attempting to break past them to see Byleth, and maybe they were, considering how many of them in every class missed her.

‘’Arch Bishop’s orders, you’re not allowed.’’

‘’P-Please, just let me see her, it’s all I need!’’

‘’We can’t.’’

Something was building up inside of her, even in her fatigue, she felt strength she by all means shouldn’t have, frustration, anger, hate, it was all fueling her at that moment. ‘’I said I _need _to see her!’’ She took a step forward. The knights did not step back, but their hands fell to their weapons.

In any other day, she’d have backed down, she’d have cowered and ducked into the ground afraid, apologizing. Now, all Bernadetta felt like doing was tacking these two.

_‘’Where _is she?’’

The knights didn’t respond.

‘’WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!’’

‘’Miss, we are going to ask you to leave, before we have to report you to the Arch B-‘’

_‘’WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?’’_ She snapped, moving at them, unsure of what she’d even do, hopefully something that would hurt.

Something pulled her back, the force making her legs give away as she was kept from the ground by two pairs of arms holding her on both sides.

‘’Bernadetta, STOP!’’

Those words forced her back into reality, as she realized Ferdinand and Caspar were physically dragging her away from the knights, who were fully prepared to strike her.

‘’I… I...’’

‘’Please, forgive our friend, she’s been through a lot of stress with the current events.’’ Ferdinand tried, his tone surprisingly fake. Seemed more like he was holding himself from doing what she had tried. Surprisingly enough Caspar was doing the same.

‘’Yeah, guys, ignore her, she’s just _really_ stressed lately.’’ He said, through gritted teeth.

‘’We will have to report her to Lady Rhea. What she did was an offense to the Knights of Seiros.’’

‘’N-No, wait…’’

The boys went silent, it was as if their expressions completely changed, as Bernadetta slowly realized this had turned into a standoff, all because of her.

Before it could escalate, an annoyed voice broke the tense moment. ‘’What in heaven’s name is going on now?!’’

‘’S-Seteth, sir!’’

‘’What is with this commotion?’’ The green haired knight walked between them and the knights. ‘’We already have plenty on our table without a civil war between students and knights breaking out.’’

‘’Si-Sir, she tried attacking us!’’

‘’Is that true, Miss Varley?’’

‘’I… I didn’t…’’

The stern man sighed, his expression becoming a lot softer. ‘’I will handle this, do not trouble Lady Rhea with it.’’ His eyes met hers, and she for some reason felt like she could trust him with that single look. It was as if he was as tired and stressed as they were, and for similar reasons.

After shooing them out of the tower, Ferdinand and Caspar not leaving her side once, he gave them a stern gaze, which was somehow not as scary as it used to be. ‘’Children, I am sure you are aware attacking the knights after one of our students betrayed us is not the best course of action.’’

‘’Th-They wouldn’t let us see the professor!’’

The man sighed, ‘’Professor Eisner is in a delicate condition right now, we wish to give her all the time she can to rest. I assure you Lady Rhea has her best interests in mind when she blocks the path, especially since, after such a betrayal, she wouldn’t want to risk the professor being attacked in such a fragile state.’’ He said, in a matter of fact manner, so automatic and fake it seemed like it was practiced for a while.

‘’But she’s alive, correct?’’ Ferdinand asked. And for a split second, the green haired man seemed taken aback. He recovered quickly, but his reaction spoke volumes of what they were hiding. ‘’Of course she is alive, unconscious but she’s alive and well, resting, as I said earlier.’’

‘’D-Do you have a-any idea when she w-will wake up?’’

‘’Not at the moment sadly’’, the man hissed through his teeth, clearly holding back information to not hurt them, ‘’But I assure you she will be fine.’’

‘’I…’’

‘’Thank you, Seteth, if you excuse us, we need to take Bernadetta back to her room.’’ Ferdinand said, almost as fake as Seteth’s responses, ‘’After all it is pretty clear she is just exhausted from this trying week, we’ll see to her getting some proper rest.’’

‘’Very well, please do try to avoid causing trouble.’’

The man left and Bernadetta sagged, the duo still carrying her, all the way to her room. For once she didn’t mind people being there. They at least gave her some comfort as she spent the rest of that night crying.

It had been almost a week since they spoke to Seteth. Still no sight of Byleth anywhere in the monastery, if anything, security around the tower had grown tighter. To make matters worse, Seteth and Lady Rhea were barely making any appearances in public anymore. No one was there to give them the answers they were looking for.

At that night, Bernadetta packed her bags. She had scouted the monastery during the week, with all knights busy training and protecting the tower, there were some holes in their security. Not enough for an army to break in, but enough for her to sneak out. Where would she go? Home was not an option, obviously, and staying in the monastery gave her nothing but despair; there was only one place left. The Empire was a long journey, but as soon as she left Church territory, which would be too busy focusing on the war, it would be just a matter of securing means of travel, and using her name and crest to prove her noble rank once she reached empire forces. She had surprisingly planned this well, for a half assed escape she thought of in a week between panic attacks.

Her bag was surprisingly light, packing only the necessary things, her weapons remaining at her side, of course. Opening the door, she almost screamed as someone was waiting for her outside. Lindhart seemed mostly bored and unimpressed with her, even when it looked like she was about to flee the monastery.

‘’I… I can exp-‘’

‘’Gods, finally!’’

‘’W-What…?’’

‘’You take too long to get ready, come on, the others are waiting.’’

‘’I don’t…’’

‘’Do you really think no one noticed your scouting?’’

She paled, they had noticed? Then what was he doing? Was he about to take her to the knights? Were her friends about to lynch her? She _was _a traitor after all.

‘’I was just…’’

‘’We are going as well.’’

The words died in her mouth, and she almost died herself, as she choked on air. ‘’E-E-Excuse me?’’

‘’We are leaving, there is only one person right now that can provide us the answers we want, and she’s a long journey from here, so we better get going.’’

She was basically dragged by Lindhart, who managed to be surprisingly stealthy, as they soon met the others. Everyone had their bags, and their expressions seemed livelier than these last two weeks combined, although the tension was still there, for the first time it felt like they knew what they were doing. As they turned to her, bittersweet smiles on their faces, she knew they were still her friends, they were still the people she trusted and cared for.

And now they were going to make sure that family remained united, through thick and thin; and hopefully get the answers they want.

With a deep breath, Lindhart readied the teleportation spell.

/-/

It felt like an eternity since that all had happened, it’d been only two weeks, a full month if she counted since the start of these events, and yet she felt as if years had passed. Perhaps it was because of how much had happened in a short period, maybe her mind couldn’t accept all of that transpired in such a small amount of time.

She still remembered the look on Edelgard’s face when they met her again; it was surprise, legitimate surprise, that anyone would follow her, that she wouldn’t have to do all of this alone. That someone believed her.

She and Hubert made sure to inform them what they were up against, something they found a bit harder to swallow, however in these last five months, any sense of knowledge of what is or isn’t impossible had all but been shattered for all of them.

Something pulled her out of her thoughts, as the knight leading the battalion she and her troops were fighting suddenly fell to his knees. She raised a brow, paying attention to any suspicious movement around the area, as she had not seen any of her friends reach him, if anything, Petra and Ferdinand, the two furthest ahead, were still ways to go before reaching him.

Her eyes widened as the armor in his back exploded, revealing huge white wings, which were soon followed by the rest of his body morphing, it was similar to a human turning into a demonic beast, but still so different in many ways.

And it was also exactly as Edelgard had told them back in the palace.

‘’A race of dragons disguised as a humans… By the Goddess she was right!’’

Lindhart landed next to her, jumping from his station, too interested in the events unfolding to remain far. ‘’That’s… Not one of ours…’’

‘’It was a knight!’’ She turned to him, still eyeing the beast as it roared, already under attack from several of their forces. ‘’It was a Knight of Seiros, and a high ranking one from the look of his armor; one of the ones that were close to Rhea!’’

‘’It all ties to what Edelgard had told us.’’ Lindhart hummed, watching as Dorothea fired a Thoron in its face -the spell working exactly as Edelgard said it would, making the thing recoil back in pain- and allowing the battalion to swarm it, finishing it.

Several similar roars were heard from the inside of the walls, making both mage and archer turn to it in a panic. ‘’Oh no… Most of Rhea’s elite soldiers were inside the walls.’’

‘’If all of them are like that, then Edelgard and Hubert will need help. Let’s finish up in here.’’

She nodded, turning back to the dwindling numbers of the enemy’s army, which were in disarray now that their leader was dead, and also confused about the transformation. That they didn’t seem to know just goes to show how many secrets Rhea had been keeping. Creatures like that, walking around the monastery, around THEM, everyday, and no one even seemed to suspect it.

But now everyone could see them for what they were; monsters attempting to fool and control everyone.

/-/

Claude and Dimitri kept fighting Edelgard, each one taking every chance they had to strike her and never giving any ground, slicing at any point they could on her body, as she struggled to parry and block it all.

It wasn't that they were working well together, it was the complete oposite, they were totally desynchronized, no teamwork or strategy, simply put, they were less working together and more both attacking Edelgard at the same time, forcing the other out of the way or waiting for their attack to be done. And that was working, somehow, Edelgard was a trained fighter, _very _well trained, she had drilled in how to fight more than one adversary, how to counter their combined efforts. But they weren't combining efforts, they were disjointed and disoriented, every strike being a spur of the moment irrational, desperate move. Their teamwork was so bad it was throwing her off and making her unable to predict their next moves, because each of them had a different idea of what to do next.

''Give up now and I'll at least rip your eyes out so you won't have to see me slicing you to pieces!'' Dimitri roared, his attacks pushing Edelgard back from sheer force. Their fight was the perfect definition of unstoppable force versus immovable object, Claude thought, Edelgard had a complete focus on defending herself, tiring her enemy out, but couldn't land a definitive blow with her current speed, and on a drawn out fight, it led to her getting more damaged than she'd probably expected. Meanwhile, Dimitri's force was a league of its own, no need to aim for vital spots or plan the attack, wherever he hit, armor or not, would hurt, all he had to do was connect the attack, however, he also had no care for his own wellbeing, as his several wounds and the arm, which Claude couldn't help but stare at every couple of minutes in worry, showed. If only they had a healer close by.

And speaking of healing, his crest should have activated by now, healing some of his damage, but he still felt his wounds fresh and open, was she somehow nullifying their crests? No, it couldn't be, Dimitri was still hitting her like a brick thanks to his crest, if she could nullify anything, it'd be _that_. Was it somehow connected to Edelgard's lack of severe damage? By now she should've been exhausted and heavily wounded, he knew he struck her several times, hits that connected and damaged her, and he _saw _what Dimitri was doing, there was no way they weren't wounding her, and yet she could still stand and fight them.

Something was way off; she supposedly had the Crest of Seiros, ironically enough, which should just give her strength, like Dimitri's. She still hadn't shown them all her cards, he could tell, and this was one of them, clearly.

''I will give you one chance to give up now, in honor of our time here in the monastery together.''

''Is that a joke?'' Dimitri cackled ''Why would I give up now that I have you exactly where I want. No, no, no, I will finish this here and now.''

As much as he hated it, given his reasons behind saying it, Claude had to agree with Dimitri's words, Edelgard would only wanted them alive as political prisoners, that would make the Alliance and the Kingdom's surrender easier, or replacing the leadership with someone more Empire friendly.

Their ex-classmate sighed, ''Very well, I expected as much, but couldn't hurt to try.'' The thoron was fired even before she finished that sentence, Claude and Dimitri scattering and attacking her in a pincer move, from each side. She focused on defending from Dimitri, as usual, using her axe to parry his lance, the curved blade that gave it the scythe look still stabbed her shoulder, from the sheer force Dimitri applied to his strike, not as deep as he could but enough to draw blood, giving Claude enough space to slash at her with his sword, now the armor's weak spots being visible and making it easier; if not for Edelgard snapping at his direction and _grabbing the sword by the edge_.

Claude, unable to exert enough strength to pull it away, stabbed the dagger into her elbow joint, making her release it, but using the now free hand to fire a Thoron aimed at his face, which he only narrowly dodged, the beam of magic scraping at his cheek. Edelgard then pulled the lance off her shoulder and swung it, Dimitri still holding it and being thrown too, straight into Claude, making the two collide into each other and fall.

They quickly noticed a circle of fire surrounding them, ''BOLGANONE'' Claude shouted, and with that, both jumped away.

Already on their feet, Claude and Dimitri charged again, prepared to keep this going until either she died or they did, but this time, a strong gust of wind caused them both to fall and roll, stabbing their weapons into the ground to anchor themselves, it wasn't Edelgard, as Claude noticed she herself stabbed her axe into the ground and used it as support to keep herself on her feet.

A loud roar and a white _thing _smashing into the floor answered the several questions in Claude's head, while also raising double the amount.

''What the hell?!''

''Couldn't finish this on your own so you brought your little demons, huh?''

Edelgard's face showed it as clear as day, she wasn't behind it, she was as surprised as they were, not that Dimitri cared at that point. ''That’s not my doing!’’ She said, quickly glancing at Dimitri, before glaring daggers at the beast. ‘’It’s her…''

''Hah! Not your fault, that's very funny, what, are the other demonic beasts not your fault as well? Were they just attracted by the stench of the blood in your hands?''

The beast attacked, its giant jaws biting at Dimitri, who slammed his lance's blunt end straight into its lower jaw, a loud crack being heard. ''Out of my way you filthy beast!'' The thing wasn't having any of it, it's Wyvern like wings slapping Dimitri away like a bug, the prince smashing into a wall.

''What_ is_ this thing then?'' Claude looked at Edelgard, who was firing several fire spells at the thing, most barely doing damage to the skin.

''It's Rhea!'' The Archbishop? What was she talking about? Was this creature somehow summoned by Rhea? Before he could dive deeper into whatever THAT meant, the thing finally noticed her, Edelgard managed to jump the tail that whipped through the ground, peeling away the pavement among its path. Trying something stronger, she fired another Thoron, and that got a reaction, its head jerking back from the impact.

Its attention turned to Edelgard, the thing didn't notice Claude slashing at the back of the knee, spilling green blood everywhere, as it roared in pain. Claude bolted away from it before it could lash out, refusing, however, to stay next to Edelgard, aware that the second the situation changed, she'd kill him.

''You're gonna have to give me more context here, Edelgard!''

''This thing is Rhea! She is the Immaculate One!’’

Claude’s reaction was nothing short of confusion, and noticing it, her temper flared. ‘’Tell you what, Claude, if we both manage to survive this, I’ll tell you the full story!’’

Before even finishing that sentence, Edelgard was already dodging a flash of light, the beast's maw had opened, releasing a beam of light from it, searing the ground it touched like the strongest fire spell ever. They both had managed to dodge it, however the creature didn't seem done.

It noticed Claude, and started walking towards him

''Of course.''

Edelgard fired several Thorons in its back, but it didn't seem to care anymore, it's focus was on him now and Claude wasn't in great condition to run very far. Its jaws opened, light condensing inside of it. Claude could only curse, as he stared death in the eyes for what felt like the fifth time that day.

And death's eyes suddenly went wide, its entire body jerking backwards, the motion forcing it's head upwards, as the neck flopped around, the beam fired into the sky instead. Between the wings desperately flapping, he could see Dimitri, teeth bared, pulling the damn thing by the tail.

''I WILL SEND YOU BACK TO THE HELL CAME FROM.''

Taking the chance, Edelgard fired a Thoron at its wounded leg, the blast tearing a chunk out of it, as the beast roared in pain. Taking the chance, Claude rushed forward, and stabbed his sword as deep as he could into the thing's torso repeatedly, as Edelgard fired more fire spells into its wings, blasting the bone structures, so it would stop desperately flapping. Dimitri was still holding it firm, and now having support only on one leg, the creature finally fell down, and when it did, the three at once went for its neck.

It wasn’t a pretty kill much less a glorious one, they carved its neck until they beheaded the damned thing, grunting and shouting like animals, getting it’s blood everywhere, only stopping until they were sure it was dead.

Once the adrenaline rush was over and their breathing began to even out, they jumped back, teeth bared, ready to restart their fight, Edelgard however, was smiling, her eyes focused on the beast.

‘’I thank you, even if you weren’t aware of it, I appreciate your help in ending this. The war is over now.’’

What was she even talking about anymore? Honestly Claude was beginning to think Dimitri’s attacks may have hit her head a bit too much.

‘’This is what you get, Rhea. For all you have done, you are now finally gone from this land, and our people free. I, no WE, have avenged B-‘’

A loud roar interrupted her.

''Another one?'' Dimitri growled, clearly tired of all interruptions.

Claude looked above and almost choked. There was another gust of wind, this time so strong the carcass of the thing they just killed was thrown away as if it was nothing. They stood no chance of resisting the wind and rolled on the ground for what felt like several miles. Once it finally stopped, Claude could only watch in horror at a beast at least five times the size of the last one.

''I... Think that's the other one's mother...''

He looked around and found Dimitri stuck on a bush, not moving

''Oh goddess, no, no...''

The creature hadn't noticed him, Claude took the miracle for what it was and ran to get Dimitri. He didn't wake up, but was still breathing; even then he went to check for a pulse, his anxious mind wanting to be one hundred percent sure. Dimitri was alive, he had finally passed out from all the fighting, and possibly the blood loss. They needed a healer and fast.

''Come on you persistent bastard, after all that you don't get to die on me like this!'' He shouted angrily at Dimitri, mostly for irrational catharsis after the hell he went through, even if he knew Dimitri wasn't really responsible for it. For all his strength, Dimitri wasn't really heavy, but then again, Claude himself was exhausted enough for it to still be a challenge.

Putting his hands under Dimitri's arms, he dragged the prince through the hell that the monastery had turned into; it being surprisingly easy to go unnoticed, as it turned out giant winged monsters attacking from all sides provided a pretty decent distraction.

Turning back to the entrance, he could barely see Edelgard, and yet the beast was easy to notice, its size towering over the buildings. It seemed like the thing was content with Edelgard alone, considering it made no effort to look for them, instead focusing entirely on her.

‘’Have fun Edelgard.’’ He thought to himself, carrying the Prince through the several craters formed on the left side of the battlefield, no soldiers or demonic beasts, oddly enough, but he wasn’t one to look the gifted horse’s mouth, especially in this current situation.

He quickly found the Blue Lions, as it seemed they were making their way to find Dimitri anyways, now that any and all resistance to their charge was refocused on fighting off the beasts, it was easier. They quickly noticed him as Dedue screamed Dimitri's name and ran towards them, Claude carefully placing Dimitri in his hands, and the man easily taking his full weight as if it was nothing.

Mercedes was there too, though she looked a bit distracted for a reason Claude couldn't figure out, and if he were being honest with himself, didn't care at the moment, she offered some healing to both. Dimitri's arm needed much more help than that, but that healing spell was what made the difference between a scar or losing an arm entirely. She also gave Claude some healing too, which he thanked.

''What happened?'' Asked Annette, carefully watching around them to be sure someone didn't try a surprise attack. ''You two look like you've been through a cheese grater.''

''Let's just say Edelgard fights like a bastard.''

''Damn it,'' Felix arrived too, helping protecting Dimitri as Dedue carried him back, ''We told him to wait for us, now look at him, useless, and we have to carry him back to safety!''

‘’Not gonna lie here,'' Claude sighed, ''I'm kinda glad he did, or else I'd be dead by now. Between Edelgard and these beasts it was probably one of the scariest experiences I’ve had in a while.’’

‘’Are these hers too?’’ Felix asked, sneering at a few of them floating around the battlefield further ahead.

‘’No, they attacked Edelgard too, I took my chance as one of them went to attack her and bolted with Dimitri, it’s her problem now.’’

He turned to the chaos around them, and now that his life wasn't in immediate danger, felt a sting of anxiety when he couldn't find his class anywhere. ''I need to go, gotta find the Deer.’’

Before he could start his sprint, Ashe spoke up, ‘’Professor Hanneman told us to begin the evacuation, these creatures made it impossible to keep the fight going, much less protect the place and surviving.’’

‘’Yeah, you all should retreat, doubt you can last much longer like this, even without Dimitri. Focus on evacuating the students and villagers. I’ll find my class and do the same.''

Claude was running before they could answer him, but they didn't seem to object. Running past a group of white beasts literally biting the arms of a demonic beast and pulling from different sides, tearing it apart as it screamed in agony, Claude could only think about Edelgard's words.

‘’I knew there was more to this church, but this much? Rhea has a _lot _of explaining to do.’’

His thoughts were cut off by an explosion of dark magic, followed by a raspy voice cursing every single soul he could to damnation. Hiding behind a tree just to be safe, he arrived just in time to see Hubert warping away, as the white beasts were absolutely massacring his little squad of demonic beasts.

‘’Y-yeah… You… You better run… You coward.’’ Lysithea fell to her knees, gasping for air. Claude caught her before she could fall further, eyeing the beasts as they were still busy with each other. ‘’Hey, hey I caught you!’’

‘’Hey… Claude…’’ She said, barely surprised, not that she had any energy left to emote that. Geesh she really had gone all out on Hubert. ‘’Did the warp… Work…?’’

‘’Well, I’m sorry to say it wasn’t off a cliff.’’ He joked, helping her up, noticing his friends rushing to them. ‘’It got me exactly where I needed to go, thanks. I managed to get to Edelgard.’’

‘’CLAUDE!’’ Hilda shouted, closing the distance between them before everyone else. ‘’There you are! What were you thinking?! Going off on your own?’’

Manuela arrived -with the rest of his class soon after- eyeing his wounds. ‘’Claude you stupid brat!’’ She complained, ‘’What part of obeying my orders did you not understand?’’ She started checking him for wounds, the deeper ones were already healed thanks to Mercedes and his Crest -which for some reason was working again- but that still left him with his clothes all but ruined, the countless small wounds and bleeding spots on his body and of course, the fact he looked as if he was about to collapse.

‘’What the hell happened to you?’’ Manuela asked, already using her magic on the worst wounds she could find.

‘’I managed to find Edelgard.’’ Everyone gasped, ‘’It was a long fight, Dimitri showed up to help, then suddenly we’re being attacked by these white things. All of us, including Edelgard.’’

‘’Speaking of which!’’ Lorenz pointed at the beasts, who were very much done with the demonic beasts, leaving nothing but barely recognizable carcasses behind. ‘’As much as I hate to interrupt, we need to leave, _now_!’’

Claude nodded, ‘’Yeah, the battle is pretty much over, regardless of who wins. We need to evacuate everyone and escape!’’ he said turning to everyone, then preparing to take Lysithea on his arms, before she pushed him away. ‘’H-Hey, I can walk! Don’t carry me like some child!’’

He rolled his eyes at her protest. ‘’What are you talking about? I’m only carrying you because you are my teammate who exhausted herself to her absolute limit protecting our friends. I carried Teach after she got hit by that spell, remember? I don’t think she’s a child.’’

‘’V-Very well then…’’ Her eyes failed to meet his, but she stopped any protests as he lifted her on his arms, bridal style, and prepared to run, until he noticed a green haired girl was still standing, eyes wide, jaw dropped and staring at the beasts, even as they snarled back at her.

‘’FLAYN! WE NEED TO GO!’’ He shouted, hoping it’d snap her out of whatever was going on in her head.

‘’I… My friends, I need to go find my brother, now!’’

Claude sighed, this, now? ‘’Flayn, we have no time! We’ll regroup with him once we’re out!’’

‘’N-No, You do not understand!’’

‘’You can explain once we’re out! Hilda!’’

‘’On it!’’

The pink haired girl lifted Flayn off the ground already running, throwing the girl over her shoulder as she balanced herself mid-run. Everyone else followed her, as Flayn attempted to wriggle herself out of Hilda’s hold, but gave up not long afterwards.

In contrast, Lysithea had all but passed out on his arms, if her mumblings about cake were anything to go by. He couldn’t help but smile, even amidst all this hell.

‘’I’ll keep you all safe, I promise.’’

/-/

She watched as Seiros used the remains of her wings, desperately attempting to slow down her descent as she roared enraged. ‘’We got her!’’

Cichol’s wyvern followed the Nabatean, hoping to chase it into the ground to give Sothis her chance, but their path was blocked by several of the Nabatean hybrids; forcing them to back away.

‘’Curse it all, we cannot reach her like this.’’ He attempted maneuvering in any way possible, but it only became more and more dangerous, as the beasts’ attacks came closer and closer to connecting. Making matters worse, there was someone down there, she couldn’t make out WHO but that person was the focus of Seiros’ rage, and by the looks of it, they wouldn’t last very long. Looking around desperately, Sothis spotted a wyvern escaping the fight, most likely after their rider died.

‘’Cichol, keep them distracted, heck, if you can, fall back and lose them entirely!’’ She adjusted herself, sitting sideways on the wyvern, eyes focused on her new ride, as she whistled for it, instantly getting it’s attention.

‘’What are you doing?! If you miss it you’re dead!’’

‘’If I fall I can use my powers to rewind time. Probably.’’

‘’Probably?!’’ He almost got them hit by an attack with the sudden exasperation, but managed to dodge the fire ball in time.

‘’Give me a break, it has been a while, and I wasn’t exactly feeling like wasting whatever pulse charges I had left!’’ She checked the wyvern again, it remained flying low, under the beasts’ radar but close enough for her to land on it.

‘’I can’t even pray anymore because it’d be the same as asking you directly to not get hurt.’’

With a sigh, she gave her son a hug, it surprised him as he was entirely focused on the beasts, but she didn’t let go. ‘’I will come back, my son, trust me. I’ll fix this, all of this.’’

‘’M-Mother…’’

‘’I will bring your sister back, count on it!’’

And with that, she jumped.

It wasn’t as bad as when she was trying to keep herself on Seiros’ leg, but in the way that one would say breaking an arm isn’t as bad as getting stabbed in the gut; both were still bad enough on their own. She attempted to balance herself in the air, the wyvern approaching faster, changing its flight direction to accommodate her landing.

She fell into its back face down, almost bending over its spine, before adjusting herself. Somehow she didn’t break anything, once again thanking Byleth’s sturdy physiology for it. She looked up and saw Cichol flying away, disappearing in the outskirts of Garreg Mach’s walls, most likely hoping to lose the beasts and circle back to help her.

‘’Please don’t put yourself in more danger for me Cichol, escape if you have to…’’

Unable to do anything beyond wishing for his safety, she turned to her daughter, which had just finished backhanding the person into some ruins, either killing them or knocking them out. She could only hope it was the latter.

She hopped off the wyvern and shooed it, not out of malice, but so it wouldn’t get caught on what was to come -the poor thing whimpered, but followed her orders- with Sothis offering it a smile as it flew away, thanking the kind creature for helping her get this far.

Turning back, she faced Seiros’ back, the dragon not done with the person, slowly making her way towards her target.

‘’Seiros, that’s enough!’’ She ran, trying to get in front of it, each step the giant walked made the earth shake, causing her to lose her balance several times in her sprint, but never allowing herself to fall.

‘’I said that’s enough!’’ She shouted again, this time standing in front of her, arms wide open.

Her daughter looked at her, but her eyes were empty.

‘’S-Seiros?’’

A claw descended on her, slashing her torso wide open, spraying blood -Byleth’s blood- on the ground.

It was unlike anything she’d ever felt before, the pain, the weakness, the loss of senses, it was an agonizing sensation, that made her drop on the ground face down, shaking as her body uselessly fought to survive.

Gritting her teeth, she forced her power out, and before her life expired, ordered time to go back.

She barely dodged the claw, rolling on cracked stone and singed dirt as she regained her stance, only to be met with a tail which whipped her into a wall.

She felt her spine -Byleth’s spine- cracking.

Time was reset once again.

She ducked under the tail, unleashing the accursed sword and slashing it at Seiros’ side, realizing she needs to get her attention _somehow_. Seeing the blade, her daughter roared, her maw opening and unleashing a wave of fire.

Pulling the sword back, she used it to block the wave, cutting it in half, as it destroyed everything in its path. The sheer force made her leg give away, broken, and after that, the full force of the blast struck her, what was probably a microsecond as her body was vaporized, felt like an eternity.

Just enough to force time back.

She unleashed the whip, lodging its point into the remains of a building, and allowed it to reel her away from the blast, which chased her, as Seiros turned her head to keep facing her. Once she landed, she had no time to catch her breath, jumping off the building into another, repeating the reeling process, this time to swing herself forward, getting as much momentum as she could to keep her distance from the blast.

Finally, once she landed, Seiros closed her mouth, unable to keep the constant stream of energy for that long. She realized too late that Seiros’ blast had made the building’s remains collapse, right on top of her. Sothis felt every bone in her body crack, every limb twist, as the rubble slowly covered her.

With a roar, she reset time.

‘’I can’t keep this up forever and I can’t beat her either. I need to get to her _now_.’’

She forced all of her remaining power, emptying whatever reserves she had left, into the sword, preparing to use the same trick she used on the building. This time stabbing the chain’s point into Seiros’ neck -the tough skin barely giving in, but still allowing it to remain stuck there- and reeling into it, slamming into her neck and gripping it with both arms and legs.

Seiros went even more berserk, moving erratically attempting to get the Goddess out of her back. Sothis climbed close to her head, closer to her ears, and once there, with a deep breath, she opened her mouth

/-/

Her body was falling apart, she could feel it burning, the skin peeling off, the organs boiling, her flesh slowly bulging to the point of bursting. Seiros did not care. She wouldn’t allow anyone to repeat what happened to her ever again.

Even if it killed her, she would not stop, she would kill Edelgard, she would kill Nemesis, she would kill _anyone_ who tried to hurt her loved ones. To try and control her power, to let go of this anger, would make her lose everything she held dear. She embraced the anger, embraced the power, accepted it for what it was.

She was dying, even with her mind lost to her rage, she could tell that much; the pain was muted, almost as if she was floating out of her body, she could see what was happening, she could understand her actions, why she was doing them, and even what she would do next, and yet it did not feel like she was there, she wasn’t in pain, she couldn’t hear nor see anything, the world was covered in red, and only two figures stood out, one white haired witch, and one who held a blazing sword, a sword made from her sorrow.

She would kill them, both of them.

No one would ever be allowed to hurt her mother, her siblings, her niece, to hurt _her_. She would never lose anything ever ag-

** _‘’In time’s flow.’’_ **

She would never…

** _‘’See the glow.’’_ **

Never…

** _‘’Of Flames ever burning bright.’’_ **

Why was she doing all of this again?

What did she do?

The red in her eyes was starting to fade.

_ **‘’On a swift’’** _

Heavens, what had she done? What was she _doing_? Her followers running away in fear, her loyal subjects turned into mindless beasts, the beautiful haven she built for her kin and everyone who would welcome her mother in their hearts, turned into a hellish landscape, surrounded by creatures of her own making.

** _‘’River’s drift.’’_ **

She remembered it all, every single atrocity she had committed, every single horrible action she had done in her mother’s name. Everything happening now, it was all her fault, what right had she to lash out on the people she had already wronged so much?

She felt tired, her body was in pain, so much pain, as it twisted itself, stripping away the power fueling her, shedding it like a skin. She could hear her heartbeat in her ears, frantic, erratic, loud, slowly calming down. Her skin hurt, as if it was on fire.

** _‘’Broken memories alight.’’_ **

Color returned to her world, as she felt something, no, someone, embrace her.

/-/

She did it, Seiros was finally back to normal; Sothis hugged her like no tomorrow and felt like never letting go. Her skin was burning, it was as if she was having the worst fever of all time, it hurt her to touch it, but she didn’t care, after what she went through, nothing would stop her from embracing her daughter.

Seiros was finally regaining consciousness, as her hands calmly pushed away from Sothis, the two finally looking each other in the eye, for the first time ever since that day where she had first awakened.

There was still a lot between them, there was still a lot to say, a lot to discuss, to do, but she would not wait any longer, not anymore.

Giving her some space, Sothis kneeled beside her, as Seiros regained her breath. The goddess attempted using healing magic, her untrained powers not enough to allow a full recovery, but enough to give her a small dose of life energy back.

Turning around, Seiros watched the monastery burn in horror, everything in ruins, as knights, empire soldiers, and even students laid on the ground dead. No one remained after the rampage. Tears ran down Seiros’ cheek, as Sothis knew exactly what was going on in her mind.

‘’I… I did all of this…’’

Sothis placed a hand on her cheek and gently pulled her away from the grim view, making her focus on the goddess’ eyes. ‘’Seiros, listen to me.’’

‘’I am a monster.’’

‘’Seiros…’’

‘’I… I’m so sorry… For Byleth, for dragging you into this… For causing this war…’’ She looked down in horror. ‘’For all the things I have done in your name…There’s so much to atone… So many sins piled up…’’

They didn’t have much time left, almost everyone had evacuated, but without the beasts, it was only a matter of time before the Empire forces that were outside the walls broke in. Sothis forced a smile, once again hoping to fix her daughter’s gaze into her own.

‘’Seiros, it’s al-‘’

The entire world shifted. The first clue that something was wrong was Seiros screaming for her, and then, almost predictably, a sharp pain in her side.

She was falling, Sothis slowly realized someone threw a spell at her, if the burning sensation on her torso was anything to go by. She could feel the taste of her own blood -of Byleth's blood- in her mouth.

Another sting in her side made her fly over the edge of one of the cliffs, the walls blocking it all but gone thanks to Seiros’ rampage.

As she looked up in her descent, she saw Seiros, desperate, trying to pointlessly reach out for her, until an axe slashed at her defenseless back, spraying more blood on the floor as she collapsed.

Edelgard was there, staring at her as she fell, her expression one of pure hatred, as she extended her hand, pointing directly at Sothis. Another spell, directly into her chest, this time, the pain was instantaneous, as her descent increased, her vision became blurry, droplets of blood –some of hers, some of Seiros- were everywhere. The last thing she saw before her vision blurred completely was Edelgard, with a cruel, satisfied expression, grabbing Seiros by her collar and dragging her away.

As she fell into water, her red blood staining deep blue, her consciousness began to fade, there was only one thought in her mind.

_''I'm sorry Byleth... I couldn't save them... ‘’_

Her eyes –Byleth’s eyes- closed.

_‘’I couldn't save anyone.''_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How messed up would it be if I just wrapped up the fic here?  
Nah, timeskip... Uh... Time. Though next chapter I'll actually explore the five years, it's probably gonna be a bit rough since it'll be a single perspective.  
Claude and Dimitri vs Edelgard is an interesting match up to write because, when you think about it, Edelgard's crests are the perfect counter to theirs. Her Crest of Seiros gives her more strenght to at least get close to match Dimitri, but not overwhelming like his since it doesn't break her weapons, while her damaging others heals her, in here I made it so it was more of her being able to steal lifeforce through wounds, and since Claude's own crest heals him, thus increasing his life force. She had basically nullified his healing by absorbing whatever lifeforce his crest gave him to heal his wounds.  
I actually really enjoyed writing the Black Eagles moment(Tho' I do feel I should've placed it somewhere earlier, as it kinda breaks the pace), even if they were all reacting and being out of character due to the severe circunstances they were thrown into, not unlike Rhea has been this entire fic so far, since she was still developing. But hey bright side is, she already reached the bottom of the barrel, only way now is up.  
Another thing I basically changed was Edelgard giving the church a full month to prepare instead of two weeks because otherwise, the BE's turn wouldn't really make sense, given the timing, Sothis spent at least a full week training, which would mean they'd have left after not even a full week of silence, which feels a bit like overreacting, two weeks instead being far more reasonable for them all to jump into conclusions.  
Sorry for the flat out Hiatus between chapters, truth be told I was busy with finals and college assignments for the entirety of last month, the only reason last Chapter even came out was because 70% of it was already written from back when I planned on these three last chapters being a singular one (I basically write every scene out of order depending on whenever inspiration drops and then piece them together, filling out the spaces, probably not the BEST way to write but it's what seems to work best for me.)  
On another note, my finals are done! It's why these chapters are so sporadic lately, which means I can hopefully work more on these chapters, and with the plot hitting the timeskip, momentum will increase a bit, so this means chapters will come more often. I doubt I'll FINISH it before the end of february, but I will at the very least be uploading more than twice a month and maybe get into the good stuff I've been planning ever since the start.  
Next chapter will hopefully be up by christmas, mostly because it's gonna be kind of a difficult one with everything I need to show and develop in it, but I won't have to split it though.
> 
> Hopefully.


	8. Time Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seteth is left to pick up the pieces once the battle is lost.

His mother had succeeded; Seteth could tell as soon as the beasts stopped mid flight and crashed into the grounds of the monastery. The Nabatean stopped for a moment to inspect them, noticing their bodies morphing back to their normal human states, as he sighed in relief.

However, that still didn’t mean they were safe; while the Empire’s armies had been massacred, their own forces had as well, and the students being forced to evacuate meant any remaining forces would be focusing on that, leaving the Monastery defenseless.

‘’I need to go get mother and Rhea then get out of here.’’

He ordered his wyvern, the beast happy to oblige as it soared through the skies, now unchallenged, until they reached the entrance where Rhea had crashed into. The entire place was completely destroyed, any buildings left were nothing but ruins, patches of grass had burned until nothing left, the pavement itself was nothing but cracks and craters, and thankfully no giant dragon provoking even more destruction.

He was too far still, but even in the distance he could see his mother and Rhea in the middle of the biggest crater, the latter in her human form, saying something he couldn’t hear. He allowed a soft smile to form in his face, out of relief for things having worked out in the end. He slowed his flight, so they could descend and collect the two, as they needed to escape. The battle was most likely lost, sadly, but the war was far from over.

Before he could even consider his next move, his mother was struck by condensed lightning, spitting blood as she flew close to the edge of the cliff. His eyes widened and his wyvern was dashing in their direction in an instant, however, before he could hope to close the distance, another spell struck, throwing her over the edge.

‘’NO!’’

Both he and Rhea screamed, his sister’s being cut off by the axe slashing at her back, spilling her blood on the cracked pavement as she collapsed from sheer shock.

Edelgard started dragging Rhea away from the cliff, bringing her to the arms of her retainer, Hubert, who held her by the collar as if she was nothing.

‘’STAY AWAY FROM HER!’’ he roared, spear readied as he finally closed the distance, only for his momentum to be broken as he had to dodge an incoming spell that almost blindsided him.

Dorothea stood at the entrance, an army behind her along with the rest of the Black Eagles, all their weapons aimed at him.

‘’No, you stay away from her!’’ She spat, firing another Thoron, which was accompanied by spears, axes, arrows and wind spells, all aimed at him.

‘’Curses!’’ As he desperately attempted to get closer, trying to fly through the rain of projectiles stonewalling any chances of forward movement, Edelgard, who seemed wounded herself, walked towards her retainer, as Hubert teleported her, himself and Rhea away, right before Seteth’s eyes.

‘’No, no, NO!’’

His mind was racing as several thoughts crashed in it, worry, guilt, regret, failure, he had failed to save his sister, failed to save his mother, he should’ve never allowed her to go there alone, he should’ve been there protecting them. Roaring, hoping it’d be loud enough to silence such thoughts, he ordered his wyvern around, leaving the area entirely and no doubt about to be chased.

He soared the entire area around the cliff, hoping to locate his mother, with no success; deep in his mind he was afraid of finding a red mark on the floor, grass stained crimson in a pool of blood with a body inside of it. The only thing he saw was a lake.

‘’Please, PLEASE fall on the lake!’’

Before he could move on, his thoughts went back to the monastery, which was all but empty. ‘’FLAYN!’’ He couldn’t see her, nowhere, either she had evacuated with the rest of the Golden Deer or…

‘’No, no, Claude wouldn’t… He’d have protected her with his life, he said so… She’s… She’s fine… She has to be.’’

He could see Demonic beasts approaching, and at the same time, he found himself stuck midair, his wyvern awaiting its orders. One side the secret passages of the monastery, where Flayn and the students were no doubt escaping this very moment.

The other side the very forest under the monastery where his mother fell, possibly not even alive anymore, one where he’d be chased by the Empire’s armies and miss any chances of regrouping with his daughter.

He gritted his teeth. ‘’Curse Edelgard, curse the empire, curse Rhea herself, curse ME AND MY OWN INEPTIDUDE.’’ Frowning as hard as he could he dashed under the monastery, making his way into the forest. ‘’Please be safe Flayn, please forgive me, I… I am a horrible parent.’’

There were troops waiting for him down there, they stood no chance as he cut them down, his anger boosting his strength as he kept flying low, always following the river’s bank, hoping to see anything, a hand, a flock of green hair, maybe his mother already out of the water, complaining about how her clothes were ruined in a humorous manner, as if that were her biggest problems at the moment.

But there was nothing.

His heart sank, as he left his wyvern to traverse the forest easier, running around it desperately, ignoring his own wounds and the blood covering his outfit, striking down any soldier in his path, looking around as each passing second made his mind indulge his worst thoughts.

‘’I… I abandoned Flayn… I couldn’t save mother… Rhea is…’’

He heard a growl around the area he had left; his wyvern. Cursing, he ran back, only to reach the clearing where he left it, now snarling at another wyvern, one with Empire armor; no rider in sight however.

‘’Shoo, Shoo,’’ he waved his hands dismissively, ‘’Go away, your rider isn’t here anymore, I’m sorry but i-‘’

For an instant, as it turn to face him, he saw something in its back, something the wyvern was desperately trying to hide and protect.

Something with green hair.

His legs almost gave way as he dashed towards it, only stopping when the wyvern threatened to open its wings and fly away. ‘’No! No! Wait… I’m her family! Please! I don’t want to hurt her!’’ He dropped his spear and ordered his wyvern to fall back, the obedient animal doing so, as he made no move.

Sensing no violence, the wyvern still frowned, but relaxed a bit, allowing him to see that it was in fact his mother. She looked awful, her hair still dyed in blood, her clothes in tatters, armor cracked, and he could make out a few bleeding and burnt spots where Edelgard’s spells had struck. Slowly, making the movements clear so the wyvern could follow, he reached into his pocket, showing a vulnerability to it, the contents of the vial shining as he allowed the animal to get a good look at it. Sensing its magic, the beast calmed down, lowering its back but still keeping eyes on him. Seteth didn’t know why the beast was so protective, but he was far from upset with it, instead being thankful for his mother’s savior.

He quickly inspected her, not removing Sothis’ body from the wyvern, just adjusting it. Her clothes were damp, indicating the wyvern had rescued her from the water after all, meaning her fall was at the very least minimized. That didn’t mean she was safe however, as the three large burning spots in her torso, one on the side, one on the stomach and the other on the chest, indicated. Opening the bottle, he allowed it to flow down her throat, and waited for a sign of life, anything.

Nothing

He could feel the wyvern growing as anxious as he was, trying to look over its shoulders to see her, but failing thanks to the limits of its neck. Seteth attempted to check for a pulse, but cursed as he remembered Jeralt’s diary.

‘’Byleth never had a pulse. Curses, I never really considered checking if mother had one or not. Is this normal or has her heart stopped?’’

He heard voices approaching.

‘’I think they went this way.’’

‘’Let’s inspect, the Emperor made it clear she wants the body collected.’’

Cursing, he turned to the wyvern, which was fully aware of the situation; snarling in the direction of the voices.

Good, so it wasn’t ordered to collect his mother, it had done it on its own free will, and it wasn’t going to hand it to the soldiers.

It was clearly trained so it could understand his orders. ‘’I will gain their attention and let them chase me out of the clearing, lay low and fly towards the closest village but stay out of anyone’s sight. I will meet you there.’’ He gesticulated, hoping the hand signs of wyvern riders to their assigned rides were universal for both Empire and Knights of Seiros.

Seemed as if it was, as the wyvern blinked in response, before looking the way opposite to the soldiers coming. Sighing, Seteth adjusted his mother into the wyvern to help keep her steady in case of flight.

That done, he hopped into his wyvern, and with a final nod to the animal who’s trust he was placing his mother’s life in, he flew away, dashing by the soldiers and making as much noise as possible. They bit the bait and gave chase.

Deep in his thoughts, he couldn’t help but worry about allowing an empire’s wyvern to take his mother away. In his desperation he had all but acted on instinct and forgotten to even question his own logic. And now, as he fought off the soldiers, his mind allowed itself to slip back into his worry.

/-/

Once they were far enough, he decided to cut loose and take out a few of them, his wyvern and his own body beginning to show signs of exhaustion as he realized the soldiers, now alarming the rest of the search patrols, were all converging on him, which was good since it allowed the wyvern to escape with his mother easily, but also meant that he’d soon be swarmed by empire soldiers.

Cutting his loses, he flew away, landing on the outer walls. He knew he’d be seen, he knew it was dangerous but he had to try it. ‘’Please Flayn, please still be…’’

His thoughts were cut off by the view of the Empire’s army, which were all marching inside the monastery, far more than anything he’d ever seen. It was as if Edelgard had brought the entirety of the Empire’s military just for this strike alone, and maybe even more, as he could see some wearing clothes clearly not typical from Empire army.

No evacuees in sight, no knights, students, anyone. They either left or were all massacred.

‘’…safe…’’ He whimpered.

He had lost her again.

His daughter, his only direct family, the one he swore to protect in his wife’s deathbed, gone. And it was all his fault, he’d choose to leave her with the Golden Deer, he’d choose to go after his mother instead of her, and now she was missing, heavens knows where, either being forced into hiding with the students, all alone, fending for herself, or…

Or…

Something struck his ribs, a loud crack indicating the bone giving away as he groaned in pain; his instincts flared, and it was the only thing allowing him to dodge the arrow that otherwise would’ve pierced his throat.

‘’Well, well, well, look who decided to stay behind.’’ A young and boastful and very familiar voice responded, Seteth looking up to meet Caspar, with Bernadetta not too far behind with her bow aimed at him.

‘’So then, are you going to give us a straight answer now?’’ Bernadetta said, her hand ever so slightly shaking as she held the bowstring. ‘’Or are we going to have to take you to Hubert?’’

‘’Miss Varley…’’

The arrow was fired, but this time he was prepared enough, swatting it away with his spear; which allowed Caspar to dash under his guard and strike him again, his iron knuckles aiming at vital points with each strike. No longer distracted, he used the blunt end of his spear to hit Caspar on the head, knocking him away before his fist could connect.

Three more arrows were fired, this time he dodged them entirely, and as Caspar attempted to punch him again, he slipped past the boy’s punch, too fast for him to hit, he was still a student after all, they both were, and elbowed him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of his lungs, before uppercutting him.

‘’You cannot beat me, I hope you are aware of that. You are still children.’’

‘’W-We don’t have to.’’

Caspar slowly got up. ‘’All we gotta do is make sure YOU don’t escape.’’

‘’I see.’’

Seteth whistled, it was too low for the two to listen, but it did its job. Bernadetta ditched her bow entirely and attempted to strike him with a sword, at the same time as Caspar switched to an axe, both making it much harder for him to parry, much less dodge.

He cursed his own limitations when a moment of distraction made him step on a rock, breaking his balance and allowing a strike to throw him into the floor; he attempted getting up but Caspar quickly kicked his hand, throwing away his spear and forcing him back to the ground. Bernadetta pointed her sword to his face.

‘’Answer us! What did you do to her!’’

He remained silent.

Her emotions flared as she bared her teeth at him, in a display he never thought he’d see from the girl. ‘’Why did you kill her? What did she ever DO to any of you? She didn’t deserve it!’’

Guilt bubbled up, he couldn’t even begin to give her a proper response, much less with Rhea being their prisoner at the moment. Instead he glared at her.

‘’So that’s it, huh?’’ Caspar snapped. ‘’Not even going to try and talk to us, we were never anything but puppets after all!’’

‘’I have no idea what you’re talking ab-‘’

‘’LIAR!’’ Caspar kicked his wounded ribs, huffing in content with his grunts of pain. ‘’If you don’t want to tell us it’s fine, Hubert’s going to be here soon.’’

‘’I did care about you, I cared about all students, it was my duty to protect and nurture you.’’ He spat. ‘’And yet you betrayed me, betrayed your own classmates, and allied yourselves with the people who kidnapped my family. What did you expect, for me to kindly answer all and any questions you might have?!’’

For a second, something resembling guilt flashed in their expressions, but it was quickly drowned in something else: Resolve.

‘’We did what we had to do. You made your bed, time to lay on it.’’

‘’With all due respect.’’ He smiled, ‘’I prefer staying awake a bit longer, I got much work left to do after all.’’

That was all the warning they had before his wyvern crashed between them, biting away Bernadetta’s sword and whipping Caspar with its tail in the same motion, forcing both to the ground.

He got up, picking up his spear and walking towards Bernadetta. With a glance he saw Caspar was unconscious, but the purple haired girl was awake, and whilst shaking in fear, glaring defiantly at him.

‘’D-Do it. I’m n-not afraid of you!’’

He stared at her, his grip in his spear tight.

‘’D-DO IT!’’

He sighed, feeling the weight of his years, of every single decision done those past few weeks, all crashing down at once, as he felt nothing but regret and sadness over the current state of his student.

He lowered his spear, walking away, as he made his way to his wyvern.

‘’G-Get back here! I’m… W-We’re not done yet!’’ She shouted, trying to get back on her feet but failing as her shaky legs gave away. ‘’C-Come on, you bastard I will k-kill you!’’

The nabatean closed his eyes, sighing once more. ‘’I am sorry Bernadetta. For everything; I really am.’’

‘’W-What?! Wait w-NO! GET B-BACK HERE! DO-DON’T GO!’’ He was already flying away, laying low in hopes of losing anyone that could give him chase. ‘’G-GIVE HER BACK! PLEASE! P-Please…’’

He ignored the girl’s pleas, no longer anger in her tone, just plain desperation.

/-/

Having finally lost the soldiers, Seteth removed his Church tunic, his plain clothes under it being far less incriminating, just in case the empire had started raiding the villages. Once he arrived at the village, he found no presence of them there yet, as the empire’s efforts seemed to be in securing the monastery and the main town first and foremost, especially since their campaign had all but started; it wouldn’t be long before their influence spreads however.

He had left his wyvern hidden in a cavern, just to be safe, buying some drapes at the village to cover his hair and face, which would be dead giveaways for anyone looking for him.

The village was far from empty, the common folk unable to simply leave their homes and the knights too busy focusing on the main towns and the monastery to provide proper evacuation; more guilt for the already forming pit in his stomach.

The folk were kind to him, as they knew him from his previous treks around. As a knight, he’d been around almost every single village around the monastery several times over, enough to have met and befriended a few of the residents. Most were almost entirely unaware of the chaos that had transpired, simply living their lives as if everything was fine. However some did notice and question his lack of proper uniform.

He had no choice but to ask around, hoping anyone would’ve seen a wyvern carrying a young lady in poor shape in its back, as that wasn’t really a common sight.

‘’Ah, yes, sure did!’’ The shopkeeper, a plain looking blonde man, responded, ‘’Damn thing was causing a ruckus, wouldn’t let anyone get close to the wounded lady, it was only when Clarisse herself talked the beast down that we were able to take the girl to her place.’’

Clarisse was the local healer, Seteth remembered, an elderly lady, very experienced in healing, not as much as the ones in the monastery, or even most advanced students, however those were prepared for war, this village simply needed someone who could take care of minor and occasionally major injuries and diseases, and Clarisse was more than qualified for that.

‘’Is she there right now?’’

‘’Indeed, you can’t miss it, the beast won’t leave the front door, almost almost as if it’s guarding the freaking place.’’

‘’I see, thank you.’’ Seteth said, already making his way, taking the supplies he picked up along with him. Once he was out, he breathed the biggest sigh of relief, exhaling all his previous anxieties, as it seemed his mother made it into the village fine. Rushing through the small town, he cursed himself for not asking the man if Clarisse had told them anything about her condition or if she had awakened already.

/-/

It was hard to miss the place, especially with the giant dragon standing guard in front of it, growling at anyone trying to get close; thankfully it didn’t do the same to him, allowing him to get inside, though not without a glare or two.

‘’Ah, Mr. Seteth, it’s been too long!’’ An elderly lady, dressed in plain robes, already walking his way, spoke. ‘’Why look at you, still young as ever.’’

‘’Nonsense, you’re younger than I ever will be, Miss Clarisse.’’ He held back the small chuckle at his own joke, aware no one would get it. ‘’I am sorry to cut to the chase, but-‘’

‘’The young girl, yes, she’s here, on the bed, come in.’’

Walking towards the next room he found his mother laying on a bed, most of her wounds were closed off, but she was still unconscious. ‘’Is she…’’

‘’Alive, at least I think.’’ Clarisse said, her tone turning serious. ‘’I have never seen anything of the sort, sir, no heartbeat or pulse, and yet she breathes and her life force seems normal. Is it some sort of spell?’’

‘’S-Something of the sort, yes.’’

‘’For all intents and purposes, she is perfectly healthy; I have cleaned any wounds and healed anything that could be keeping her in this state, and yet…’’

‘’So she is not waking up?’’ He asked, worried, cursing himself for not having rescued her in time.

‘’It’s difficult to guess, I have no experience with this situation, all I can say is that she is alive.’’

Could it be that her body forced itself to sleep so she could heal from wounds? Byleth had her heart, and given the changes that had happened, possibly some more; so would it be possible that his mother had entered Nabatean sleep, just like Flayn all those years ago?

If so, it meant she could be staying like this for centuries.

All while Edelgard and the Empire were looking for them.

‘’Who is she?’’ Clarisse asked, clearly noticing his worried expression.

‘’Family.’’ He said, still staring at his mother, racking his brain thinking of what he could do. Leaving her here was not an option, much less staying himself. Which left him to go on the run; but could he take her like this? Being chased by the empire with his mother being in the line of fire like that? And to make matters worse, he had no feasible way of communicating with anyone, the knights and students being long gone with the evacuation.

He knew WHERE they went, obviously, he planned it all. The students would be returned to their homes, escorted by the Knights, while the Knights themselves, if overwhelmed, were to flee to Faerghus, as it was the safest place for them, given the Kingdom’s respect for the Church.

Faerghus would be the safest place without a doubt, and Prince Dimitri would welcome them; however could he make the trip to there?

‘’Ah, I see, I knew I recognized the hair from somewhere, she’s your sister then? Her hair looks just like little Flayn’s’’

He felt a pang in his heart, remembering that Flayn might have –not might, she was there, she was safe- along with the evacuees, and now out of his reach. His mind then wandered to Rhea, who had been taken by Edelgard in her already poor shape.

He began to feel dizzy, it seemed like all the adrenaline was finally starting to fade, and his body couldn’t handle it anymore, Clarisse noticed, as she directed him to a chair, which he slumped on.

‘’Rough day?’’

‘’I… Y-Yes I guess you could say that…’’ He stared at his mother, it was so odd how quickly he accepted her face as his mother’s, no longer Byleth’s. Maybe now that he didn’t have anything else to worry about, for the first time in what felt like ages, there was nothing to help push away the thought. Byleth really was gone, and his mother was in her body now, forced to see the person she had replaced every day she looked in the mirror. ‘’I thank you Clarisse, how much w-‘’

‘’Nonsense boy, we owe the knights a lot as it is, I am not going to charge you. Especially since she is still in this state.’’

‘’I… I see…’’ He was too tired to argue back, already feeling sleep coming; with one last glance at his mother, Seteth’s eyes closed as he fell asleep.

/-/

‘’Empire business, don’t interfere.’’ A stern voice said, coming from the other room, making Seteth snap awake, almost falling from his chair.

Looking around, his memory slowly came to be, he was still in the healer’s place, and his mother was still in the bed, asleep. Looking at the window, it was dark outside, implying he’d been sleeping for the whole day, clearly not enough as his fatigued body struggled to move.

He noticed the wounds from his fight with Bernadetta and Caspar had been healed, Clarisse probably noticed he was wounded and gave him some healing as well, bless her soul.

‘’Have you seen anyone that fits this description?’’ 

‘’Green Haired middle aged knight and a young lady with same hair color?’’ Clarisse said, rather loudly so he could hear her, Seteth realized, already wrapping his mother up on the bed sheets and preparing to escape. ‘’Yes, I did see them.’’ He froze.

‘’They came here today asking for healing, but left soon after I was done.’’ She said, and Seteth could barely contain the sigh of relief. ‘’Why, did they do something wrong?’’

‘’Not at all, they were with us in a mission sanctioned by the empire, however they got separated in the middle of a fight.’’ The soldier said, already having an alibi in place. Clever, as the village would be far from kind if they found out the Empire had attacked the church that supported them for so long; better to let another group take care of that, one better prepared for it. ‘’We were looking for them so we could take them back, the knights are really worried.’’

‘’Ah, I see.’’ Clarisse chuckled, it seemed incredibly forced, she didn’t buy their story one bit, it seemed. ‘’Well they sadly left, I am sorry, it’s possible they returned to the monastery on their own.’’

‘’Ah, very well, just in case, do you mind if we give your office a quick look around?’’

Seteth froze.

‘’N-Now why would that be necessary? You make it sound as if they’d be hiding from you.’’

‘’We just want to make sure, lady, I assure you.’’

‘’Of course, of course.’’ She said, unable to properly refuse, welcoming them in, as Seteth desperately started looking for hiding spots, quickly grabbing Sothis and moving inside the closet in the office. He closed the door but could clearly hear the footsteps around the office, on the other rooms. His own heartbeat was almost deafening as he attempted to keep his breath low.

‘’One more thing, ma’am.’’ The soldier said, entering a room. ‘’That wyvern outside, do you know how it got there?’’

‘’ah, I do not, it merely flew into the town and acted angrily towards anyone attempting to get close to it, why?’’

‘’Nothing, It’s just that one of our superiors lost a wyvern during the fight, and we were considering if it could be that one.’’

‘’Wouldn’t it have empire armor, however?’’ Clarisse asked, clearly attempting to poke as many holes in their stories as she could, hoping it’d lead them to leave.

‘’Indeed, our mistake then.’’

The footsteps arrived to the room, the sound of someone opening every window and door, moving furniture and chairs, humming with every movement.

Seteth grit his teeth as he heard the footsteps approaching, grabbing the dagger his mother kept on her belt, which was Byleth’s, and preparing to fight his way out.

A hand touched the closet’s door, about to open it.

He pulled his mother closer, using his own body to shield her as he prepared to land a surprise attack the second he was seen.

‘’Just going to check this closet and then we will leave you alone m-‘’

‘’EVERYONE, COME OUT PLEASE!’’

‘’What?!’’

The hand left the door, running to another room, where Seteth heard several footsteps rushing towards.

‘’IT’S THAT WYVERN, THE ONE YOU SAID MIGHT BE LADISLAVA’S! IT’S GOING BERSERK!’’

‘’Damn it! Quick, take it down before it causes damage to the village!’’

They all left in a rush as Seteth muttered a silent thank you to the animal. The door opened and he snapped back, knife in hand, to meet Clarisse, stopping his attack at the last moment.

‘’Quick, can you two hide in the forest?’’

‘’Y-Yes, I just need the sup-‘’ Before he could finish, Clarisse tossed the supply bags on him, already preparing a warping spell.’’

‘’Thank you Clarisse, I can’t begin to tell you how much good you’ve done today.’’

‘’It’s not every day you get to save a Knight of Seiros’’ She chuckled, before turning serious. ‘’Be safe Seteth, and take care of your sister, I hope she wakes up soon.’’

‘’Me too.’’

In a flash, he was back on the forest, already moving as fast as he could, carrying his mother bridal style with the supplies on top of her, making his way into the cave where his wyvern was kept. It growled to him before realizing who he was, backing down and allowing him to enter the cave.

Seteth began setting camp, as it would not do to leave with the soldiers looking everywhere for them still. They would need to spend the night there, the next day he would most likely begin their journey as far away from the region as possible.

He wasn’t able to sleep, thankfully the short nap he took at Clarisse’s office was enough to give him some rest, allowing his wyvern to rest as he guarded the entrance. It was hard not to let his thoughts wander into what would happen to his family.

Flayn, his daughter, was out of his reach, and unlike the other students, he had no idea where she could be at the moment; they planned for the students to return to their homes, while the knights would take refuge in Faerghus, the teachers would’ve followed their students then hid wherever they saw fit. However Flayn was planned to be taken with him, escape from the monastery alongside him if something went wrong.

And since that hasn’t happened, where would she be now?

A dark thought kept popping back in his mind, no matter how hard he attempted to let it go, of his daughter desperately looking for him in the middle of the ruins, trying to get to him while everyone else evacuated; only to be found by empire forces, or worse, Edelgard herself.

He was a fool for not going back for her, he really was, he kept worrying about his mother and Rhea, he ignored his own daughter, alone and endangered in the middle of all that chaos.

And he dared calling himself her father, disgraceful, he wasn’t even good enough to be her brother, or related to her in general.

Rhea, his sister, he allowed her to sink as low as she did, and once he found out the depths of her agony, he did nothing but berate her, allow her to rot in her own thoughts, expecting her to save herself. In a sense, what had happened to her was his own fault, he shouldn’t have let her and their mother to figure out their issues on their own.

Now she was with the Empire, suffering heaven knows what, as they’re probably torturing her, given their hatred of the church. He wouldn’t put it past Edelgard to execute Rhea, make it a public event no less. And here he was, in a cave, lost and unable to do anything, much less rescue her.

Another dark thought surface as he remembered the demonic beasts, the mages wearing uniforms different from the ones the empire soldiers were, both present in the attack. Solon’s and Kronya’s corpses, the white and deformed skin looking familiar to a certain group he hadn’t seen for a long time and hoped he’d never see again.

If that was the case, then he didn’t dare imagine what could happen to his sister, execution or torture at the hands of Edelgard seemed like a better alternative. Even worse, that group was the one who took Flayn’s blood, they knew her origins, so who’s to say they didn’t target her amidst the confusion?

Once upon a time, said group almost got their disgusting claws on his daughter, leaving her gravely harmed; he could still remember how long he spent panicking over her, how every day until she finally woke up, there wasn’t a moment he wouldn’t deep down be close to an anxiety attack over her safety, wishing he could be with her the whole time.

Now he felt like it was repeating itself, but with three different family members at once. Flayn was missing, Rhea was taken by Edelgard, and possibly the Agarthans, and his mother was in deep slumber, maybe for the next century.

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. ‘’I can’t do this, not like this…’’

A rustling in the woods snapped him out of such thoughts, almost thankfully, as he armed himself expecting a fight.

What he got instead was the glare of a grumpy wyvern, clearly upset on being left behind.

‘’Y-You again?!’’

The wyvern made its way inside the cave, ignoring Seteth’s flabbergasted expression, curling itself next to Sothis and falling asleep almost instantly.

He sighed. ‘’Well at least I’m not entirely on my own.’’

/-/

The journey to Faerghus was long, taking him about ten months to get there; as the safest route was longer. They had to avoid civilization the entire way, as without any way of knowing the current status of the war, he didn’t know which places to trust or not. The snowy tundra made the trip even more difficult, as they struggled to keep themselves warm in the woods.

The poor wyverns had the worst of it, being cold blooded and all. Seteth arranged several blankets for them, some drapes for the travels, and even set out large campfires to allow them to heat themselves up. It was obvious knights on Faerghus with Wyverns were pretty rare, preferring to leave the flying to Pegasi knights instead. These poor creatures were made for much warmer temperatures, after all.

Though he had to avoid villages for much of the journey, he wasn’t without supplies, having stocked up resources in depots through all of Fódlan during his time wandering it. Some were changed or found and emptied; such was expected, given how long they were set up. However there were still enough to keep him with extra clothes, gold and other useful things for the journey.

Having finally reached Fhirdiad, Seteth reluctantly had to leave Sothis in his camp, the two Wyverns guarding her as he prepared to make his way to the city, thankfully the cold weather gave him the perfect excuse to wear a hood, hiding his hair and most of his face.

The empire wyvern stared at him as he made to leave, as if wondering where he was going.

‘’I’ll restock on supplies, plus look for something warmer, Faerghus has got to have better things to keep people warm than whatever we have been keeping.’’

The wyvern merely huffed, turning to the unconscious Sothis and lying next to her, ignoring him entirely, as he sighed and continued to make his way out. His own wyvern was much more understanding, standing guard and making sure to watch him as he left.

‘’Great, now I’m talking to Wyverns.’’ He sighed, as he made his way to the closest town, hood already covering his face.

Fhirdiad was brimming with life, not surprising, as it was the Capital of the Kingdom; several shops, plenty for him to look around, not that he’d have the time to look around too much, instead he preferred to just find the first shop, get everything he needed there and leave, hopefully asking the shop owner for information.

‘’The Empire?’’

‘’Yes, apologies if it sounds like I’m interrogating you, I have been travelling for a while, so I have become quite unaware of any news regarding politics or the war.’’

‘’Travelling? Escaping the war with your family?’’ Seteth nodded, it was as good as alibi as any, and not entirely untrue. ‘’Ah, well, no one can blame you for that, it was honestly the best move, considering the Empire has been annexing any villages and towns they can get their hands on. I believed those would be violent takeovers when I first heard of them, but if it’s anything like what they did here, you had no reason to leave.’’

‘’W-Wait, what they did here? What do you mean?’’

‘’Geesh, you must be travelling for a real long while if you didn’t know that.’’ The man sighed, Seteth suddenly grew tense, as he looked around and noticed the patrols were wearing not the normal Kingdom armor, but Empire armor. ‘’The regent was murdered by his own family about four months ago, a horrible tragedy.’’

‘’P-Prince Dimitri?’’ He gasped, it didn’t make sense, the prince would never kill his own family, he was a polite and fair young man, a perfect picture of a knight.

But then again, his dark thoughts spoke up, reminding him of how troubled the prince had been in that last month, how he was rambling about killing Edelgard and crushing the Empire no matter what, the ways he trained and fought to kill in the most painful and brutal way possible, with an insane grin to his face.

Could it be that he killed his own uncle so he could ascend to the throne and challenge Edelgard? Would Dimitri seriously do that? Seteth wished he could answer a big definitive ‘’no’’, but then again, as that last month had proved, he didn’t know the boy as well as he assumed he did.

‘’Indeed, the entire populace was shocked; many still refuse to believe the young prince would do such a thing, the entire kingdom was thrown in disarray. Cornelia, the mage in service of the royal family took emergency powers to bring order back to the kingdom. No one refused her, considering what she had done for us all those years ago.’’

‘’The plague, yes, I do recall her being vital in ending it.’’

‘’According to her, the prince had believed rumors of his uncle being related to the Tragedy of Duscur, and extracted revenge for his family; it is a sad end for the lineage, no doubt.’’

That… Did not make sense at all; Dimitri firmly believed Edelgard was responsible for that, it was hard not to know it when that was all he’d talk about in those last days, he wouldn’t be so easily convinced otherwise…

‘’Cornelia then allowed the Empire free reign over Faerghus, so it could help reinstate order after the chaos brought by such tragedy.’’

‘’She surrendered then?!’’

The man looked around, making sure the soldiers weren’t listening. ‘’She did, and I’m pretty sure everyone hates her choice for it, heck, we are probably on the brink of a civil war. It’s most likely why the Empire has been so peaceful and careful with their hold on the city, don’t want to spark anything.’’

They’re letting the people get used to them, allowing their anger to fade, for them to become complacent before pushing them back.

‘’W-Wait, what about the Knights of Seiros?’’

‘’What of them? No one has seen any since the fall of Garreg Mach.’’

His heart sank.

‘’But they’re…’’

‘’And if they were here, I doubt the Empire OR the Kingdom would be kind, the Empire was already on a campaign against the knights, but after the Goddess’ Retribution, I think everyone else wants them as far away from their homes as possible, heck, even those who dislike the Empire taking command mostly agree that the Church of Seiros should be avoided at all costs.’’

‘’Retribution…?’’

The man was flabbergasted, ‘’Sir, you CAN’T not know about this! It’s been discussed everywhere for almost a full year now! During the invasion, there were several divine beasts attacking everyone, destroying and killing everything they could. Many believe that was an act of the Goddess, enraged by the attack on her church.’’

Seteth for a short moment forgot how to breathe, he hadn’t even stopped to think what the effects of Rhea’s rampage would have been, and now it seemed like that was coming back to make things even more difficult.

‘’After that, no one wants anything related to the church, because they’re afraid of the Goddess smiting them for anything they do wrong, so better stay as far away from her as possible.’’

‘’I…See…’’

He thanked the man and left, noticing the soldiers were already giving him shifty looks, as he made his best to hide his face. Picking up the pace, he could hear them following him, before asking him to stop. He pretended to not listen as he made his way through the mass of people in the street, hoping to lose the group of soldiers.

Someone pulled him inside an inn as he was making a turn on the street, almost making him fall as his balance was taken. The soldiers, who hadn’t seen him entering the place, moved past the inn and further down the street.

‘’L-Let go of me this very ins-‘’

A hand was placed on his mouth, as he finally saw who was the person, still holding him by the collar. ‘’Well this is the thanks I get for helping you? I expected a knight such as yourself to know how to treat a lady, Seteth.’’

‘’Let him go, Manuela, the man is clearly still startled.’’

The hands holding his collar and mouth were retracted, as he looked at Manuela and Hanneman, who were both smiling at seeing him again, also wearing hoods of their own.

‘’Seems like we are not the only ones being hunted, huh?’’

‘’Y-You two!’’

‘’Come on Seteth, let’s grab you a seat.’’

/-/

‘’And that is pretty much all of it.’’ He finished, sighing. He’d tell them about how he found the professor unconscious and wounded, how she hadn’t wake up since then, while still somehow being alive, obviously refraining from referring to her as his Mother, of course.

‘’Seteth… I’m so sorry, and I thought we had it bad.’’

‘’Maybe it was something to do with whatever Edelgard fired on her? No, maybe her own crest, the professor always was a mystery, maybe this is another part of it…’’ Hanneman hummed, already theorizing what could be happening.

‘’Honestly, I wouldn’t mind it if you two wished to see her yourselves.’’

They stared at him, before looking at each other nervously. ‘’We… Seteth we would love to…’’ Manuela started, placing a hand on his leg. ‘’However my medical supplies and Hanneman’s research instruments were vital for our work, and those are gone.’’

‘’We have been on the run ever since arriving on Fhirdiad with the knights, finding no time or place to settle down.’’

‘’So the knights DID arrive here?’’

‘’Indeed, as you planned.’’ Hanneman continued. ‘’However there was an empire ambush as soon as we got in kingdom territory, it seems like they had already infiltrated Faerghus even before the attack. We all escaped into different ways afterwards.’’

He could feel his panic attack starting to set in. ‘’W-Was Flayn with you?!’’

‘’F-Flayn? But we… Oh no, Seteth!’’ Manuela realized what it meant, looking horrified.

‘’By the time I had returned, all evacuees had left, I have no idea what happened to my sister.’’

Hanneman turned to Manuela. ‘’You were in charge of the Golden Deer during the attack, young Flayn was with them, was she not?’’

‘’Y-Yes, but everything became chaos during the evacuation, I recall Hilda picking her up when she froze in the middle of the escape.’’

Seteth managed to breathe a sigh of relief, so she had at least escaped the monastery.

‘’However I got split up from the rest of the students in the escape caravans, as I stayed back with the knights to heal the wounded and guard the evacuees, so I don’t know where she could’ve gone.’’

‘’She’s safe, Seteth, I promise you.’’ Hanneman placed a hand on his shoulder. ‘’The knights in charge of evacuation wouldn’t allow her to be left behind, and if she was with any of the students she knew they probably kept her safe.’’

Seteth wanted to believe them, but he knew something they didn’t, that Flayn’s blood made her a target, that in the middle of the chaos, it would be perfect for a single student to be taken away, especially by someone infiltrated on the Knights, like the Empire had done so easily before.

‘’I… Sure hope so… And you two are fugitives then?’’

‘’We were actually offered places in the Empire, Manuela for her service to the Black Eagles as their teacher and myself for my research on crests.’’

‘’They didn’t take a ‘’no’’ very well’’ Manuela huffed. ‘’As if I’d go back to those backstabbing brats, LITERALLY backstabbing considering the Death Knight works for them.’’

‘’Indeed.’’ Hanneman continue. ‘’As for myself, I saw what they were using crest research for, as if I’d let them use my knowledge for more of those beasts. I was hoping once I got inside the kingdom I could regroup with my students but…’’

‘’Hanneman… What happened to your class?’’ Seteth asked, noticing the crest scholar’s frown.

‘’Prince Dimitri’s fate is something you’re already aware of, correct?’’

Seteth nodded. ‘’It is a clear set up, the Empire being already infiltrated here makes that much clear.’’

‘’I thought the same. The boy was troubled, that much was obvious, but his misguided hate was focused on Edelgar alone and nothing would turn him away from it, much less rumors. And yet I couldn’t locate my students, none were returned to their proper homes.’’

‘’They attacked the evacuees?’’

‘’It’s… A possibility.’’

They all remained silent, considering the grim possibility.

‘’I… I need to get back, I shouldn’t leave Byleth in the cold, even when she’s being guarded.’’

‘’It’s alright Seteth, stay safe, and survive. Hopefully we will meet again.’’

‘’I thank you Manuela, and you Hanneman, even in these circumstances, it was good to see you two. Survive as well.’’

‘’Before you go.’’ Hanneman coughed. ‘’Where are you going next, can you tell us?’’

‘’I… Do not know. I was hoping we would be safe in the kingdom but…’’

‘’There are some territories fighting off the Empire’s takeover still, the biggest one being Fraldarius.’’

‘’Lord Rodrigue? I see… That… Could be good.’’

‘’We considered going there but Hanneman won’t stop until he finds his students.’’ Manuela placed a hand on the scholar’s shoulder. ‘’And I can’t leave him alone for a second without him causing trouble, so I got dragged here too.’’

‘’Oh don’t start it woman, you came because you wanted to, and besides, if I happened by any trouble, it was because of you!’’

The two started bickering, and Seteth couldn’t help but smile, having missed their usual interaction.

/-/

Once back in camp, he started setting things up for them to travel again, not for once missing the fact both wyverns were glaring at him for making them work so soon and in such cold conditions.

‘’It is for the best, trust me, once we reach Fraldarius territory we will be safe enough to get a warm and comfortable place to stay, instead of camping.’’

He stopped before sighing, placing a hand on his face. ‘’I am actually holding a conversation with a wyvern, am I not? Gods these last few months were tiring.’’

A rustle on some bushes alerted him and the wyverns, his own preparing to fight while the other instantly moving towards his mother.

‘’Surrender now!’’

Several soldiers surrounded him, it seemed like they were on high alert after identifying him, of course, Edelgard would want him as much as Rhea, considering who he was, especially if she found out he had Sothis with him.

Without thinking, he grabbed his spear and attacked.

His wyvern along with him made quick work of the soldiers, he was far from rusty thanks to the months he spent alone giving him plenty of time to keep his training in check.

As he finished off the soldiers, one made to escape, but he gave chase, throwing his spear at the man and piercing his leg with it, staining the snow red as the man collapsed crying in agony.

‘’P-Please, I do not wish to fight anymore, I’ll just go! I won’t tell anyone!’’

Seteth’s expression changed once he saw the man, no, the child, he couldn’t be beyond the age of the students of Garreg Mach, and on the verge of tears thanks to the agonizing pain.

‘’P-Please no…’’

Letting him go?

It was just a child working for his nation, he was afraid, clearly, he didn’t want to die. But if he let him go, what were the chances he’d stay quiet? How would he even explain the wound or his entire patrol squad missing?

If he were to let him go the Empire would know his mother was with him, they would never let him know peace, much less stop until they had him, had HER.

They had already taken Rhea, and may have taken Flayn, all because of his weakness. Could he allow himself the same again?

If Edelgard knew his mother was here, she would stop at nothing, bring Fhirdiad to its knees if necessary and crush anyone in her hunt for him; he would not be able to protect his mother from the full force of the Empire.

He pulled the spear off the soldier’s leg, the kid screaming in agony as he did.

He could just leave him there, either he’d die from the cold, or from a wild beast. Or another search patrol would find him. It was a small chance but it was a chance still.

Clenching his eyes close, Seteth couldn’t dare to look at this boy in the eyes as he prepared his spear.

‘’I-I’m sorry, but I can’t lose my family again.’’

The spear came down.

/-/

He woke up from another nightmare, deciding it was better to simply get up already, as he doubted he’d get more sleep anyways. His nightmares were always the same, either Flayn, Rhea or his mother, at the hands of the Agarthans, thanks to his own failure in protecting them. That two of those were possibly real only hurt more.

He left his room, going to the kitchen to make himself some tea as he stared out in the window. The snow finally seemed to stop for now, some rays of sun being visible finally.

It had been over a year since he made his way into Fraldarius Territory, sneaking past any Empire watchers or fighting his way in. Lord Rodrigue welcomed him with open arms, offering asylum in his lands and making sure no Empire spies were aware of their presence. It didn’t surprise Seteth that he was hunted by the Empire, his face plastered in signs through several cities in Faerghus, meaning sticking to camping had been a clever choice.

He was given a place to stay, one he insisted on paying, considering he still had plenty of resources left. It even had a stable of sorts for the Wyverns, thankfully next to the window were Sothis’ room resided, or else that cursed wyvern would throw a fit.

As for his mother, he brought in several healers all with expertise in different ways of healing and care, but none were able to do anything about her condition. It seemed like he’d have to wait for her to wake up after all.

Their peace was anything but definitive however, Lord Rodrigue’s hold on the land was slowly dwindling thanks to the Empire’s vast resources. The more time passed, the more in risk they were, as people in the Kingdom were starting to grow complacent, allowing the Empire to force their hand a bit more, going as far as executing Prince Dimitri, and no one stood up or attempted to stop it, showing how people were already giving themselves up to the Empire’s control.

It wouldn’t take long until they stopped playing nice.

Sitting on a chair next to his mother’s bed, he sighed.

‘’Hello mother… I… Hope the bed is warm enough. I am sorry for bothering so early in the morning, I guess… I guess I couldn’t sleep well, heh, again.’’ He chuckled, looking out the window, seeing the wyverns sleeping in their comfortable stable, several layers of warm covers on top of them. ‘’I had another dream about Flayn… It’s… The same thing as always, her all alone in that hell that became of Garreg Mach, running straight into Edelgard all alone, taken along with Rhea to heavens knows where, as those cursed Agarthans oversee it all…’’

He drank his tea, sighing at the warmth of it. ‘’It’s funny, two years… And yet it feels like an eternity. I have spent decades, centuries alive, but none felt as long as these past couple of years have…The uncertainty of what happened to them… Of what will happen to us… I fear the green in my hair may fade into grey soon if this keeps going.’’ He once more chuckled. ‘’Then again, it would probably make hiding a lot easier, would it not?’’

He got up, deciding to enjoy the rare sight of daylight and go for a walk. The people of the town were friendly towards him, it helped keeping the sense that there was peace there, no matter how fake it all was in reality. In his mind he couldn’t help but wonder that would happen to them once the Empire decided they were done with Rodrigue’s resistance.

Lost in thought, he accidently slammed into a blonde woman while walking aimlessly, apologizing then making a double take.

‘’Catherine?’’ He blinked, the knight looking as shocked as he was.

‘’S-Seteth?!’’

‘’Y-You’re alive?!’’

They both stood staring at each other, jaws wide open at the sheer coincidence.

‘’What are y-‘’

Before he could say anything, the knight jumped at him, giving him a hug strong enough that he felt his joints cracking. ‘’Uh…C-Catheri…Ne…’’

She broke free, with an apologetic smile. ‘’I’m sorry it’s just… It’s good to finally see a familiar face for once.’’

‘’Did… Did the other knights…’’

‘’Not here’’ She said, looking around. ‘’Follow me.’’

‘’I… I don’t think I should spend too much time out here.’’

‘’All the more reason to follow.’’

Sighing, he followed the knight, reaching a seemingly abandoned estate, one of the many houses the Fraldarius house had, he recalled. Once in, he was surprised to find the place full, several men and women chatting or sleeping in the place, most seemed tired and wounded, some healers already helping those in bad shape, and some were sharing food with the rest.

‘’Are these…’’

‘’All the remaining Knights who didn’t defect.’’ She sighed. ‘’The empire had an ambush ready for us and we ended up scattered, but Lord Rodrigue made sure to rescue as many of us as he could, brought us here and set us up with this location.’’

She looked proud at the small group living there. ‘’It’s not much, but Rodrigue allowed us to fight the Empire under no banner, to avoid affiliations with either the church or the Kingdom. He gives us resources and intel, we strike. It’s how he’s been keeping his land so far.’’ She turned to him, smiling ‘’Just wanted you to see it.’’

He knew exactly what she wanted, and a part of him could see the point. With him around, morale would obviously increase, if he joined them, he could even work his way into convincing more to join their ranks, in hopes of strike back at the Empire.

But could he really carry his mother around in a battlefield? Take her into these battles and put her in danger? Of course not, much less leave her behind. And worse, if he were recognized, it’d put her in grave danger by proxy, her and this entire territory.

‘’Catherine…’’ He turned to the knight, who forced a smile, she was clearly trying to keep this entire group together. ‘’I… I appreciate your effort, I really do, however…’’

‘’Come on Seteth, you more than anyone else must understand why we have to strike! They destroyed our home, they kidnapped Rhea and killed several of our own!’’

‘’Indeed but…’’

‘’But what? Do you intend to just keep hiding away? This was our sacred home, Seteth, the place that made us who we are t-’’

‘’Byleth was severely wounded in the fight.’’ He closed his eyes, hearing her gasp, ‘’I managed to find her and hide her, even took her to several healers; but her wounds are severe and she has yet to wake up, much less fight.’’

Catherine’s entire expression changed, seemed like she had understood the position he was in. ‘’I see, so you’ve been hiding away not to run, but to keep her safe…’’

‘’Do not get me wrong, I hate the empire for what they have done, and wish for nothing but to stop this senseless war Edelgard started… However, to do so would mean either leaving m-the Professor behind, or taking her with us, to fights she cannot even fight.’’

The knight scratched the back of her head, wincing. ‘’Yeah I… I see… I’m sorry for trying to push you into this, I just…’’

‘’You wanted to give them some hope. That’s not a bad thing, Catherine.’’

She sighed, sitting down on a couch as he sat beside her, away from the rest of the knights who were chatting in their own little groups. ‘’It’s just that morale has been low, especially given the end of the siege; those white beasts.’’ She recounted, her eyes growing dark as she probably remembered the hell that had happened. ‘’People have been calling it an act of the Goddess. That Edelgard had dared to strike her holy sanctuary, and thus the Goddess lashed out, unleashing judgment on all involved.’’

‘’That’s ridiculous.’’

‘’Is it? I have no idea what happened back there, much less what caused it. In the end, people are now afraid, of the church, of us knights, which feeds well into the Empire’s propaganda against us. It’s why we are not allowed to be identified as Knights of Seiros. The only people who still support us are either loyal, know better, or true believers in the faith, who believe all of those who go against the goddess shall be punished.’’

‘’It’s… Not a good picture.’’ Seteth winced.

‘’Not at all.’’

He looked around the place, it wasn’t a bad home to live, not at all, most likely a bit cramped considering the amount of people inside, but even if the house was left abandoned, it was still a noble’s house, well kept, tidy and surviving the test of time.

‘’When Rhea treated your wounds, all those years ago, did she not give you some of her blood?’’

‘’Hm?’’ Catherine turned back to him, confused. ‘’No…? I recall her saying something about my crested blood making it dangerous.’’

‘’That does explain why you’re still here then…’’

The knight rose a brow, the dots beginning to connect. ‘’What do you mean?’’

‘’Rhea provided some of her blood to her personal guard, and the most loyal knights in the monastery. I am sure you saw how she turned first.’’

‘’Y-Yeah, I merely assumed it was the goddess empowering her?’’

‘’In a sense, you are correct.’’ He sighed, well, no point in hiding it anymore. ‘’Rhea is a child of the goddess herself. As such she was gifted with many powers, one of them being turning into what we know as the Immaculate One.’’

Catherine’s jaw dropped. ‘’W-Wait, you’re telling me… She’s… She’s been around for that long? And… The goddess… But that means…’’

‘’Rhea’s transformation created a domino effect, provoking all knights she shared blood with to turn as well. In a sense it was an act of the goddess, but not a conscious one, merely an… Unfortunate series of events.’’

‘’All those people… The knights… They all died because of her?’’

He closed his eyes, unable to face her as he answered it. ‘’While not entirely intentional on her part, as she was consumed by her powers, yes. Rhea… She has been in a fragile state for a long while, even before you were born; performing and ordering acts one would consider atrocious, I took too long to do anything about it, and now we are all paying the price for it. I know this was probably the last thing you wished to know in your desperate search for morale but… I can’t just lie to you, not after all you’ve sacrificed for us.’’

She sagged on the couch, pensive, staring at the ceiling, for several minutes, the only thing heard between them was their breathing, as he allowed her to form her own thoughts.

‘’I still wish to save her.’’ She closed her eyes, relaxing on the couch. ‘’I still wish to take down the Empire, even if the church might be no more afterwards, the people deserve that much. As for Lady Rhea… I want to talk to her directly, get my answers from her. No matter what she had done, I owe her that much at the very least.’’

‘’So your resolve wasn’t shaken.’’

‘’Shaken?’’ She chuckled, ‘’I’d say it’s been doubled.’’

‘’For what it’s worth, I’m glad we had you Catherine, you are one of the finest knights in all of Fódlan.’’

She smiled, relaxing at the praise, tension finally leaving her body. ‘’From you sir, that’s high praise. And as for your problem with the professor, have you attempted going to the Alliance?’’

‘’The Alliance?’’

‘’Ah, excuse me, of course you wouldn’t know, considering you were most likely avoiding being seen much, even here. Claude has become the new leader, for about a year now.’’

That was… Good news, really good news actually, especially after finding out what had happened to Prince Dimitri. That Claude survived the Empire’s take over and managed to take his rightful place in the Alliance meant there was still some hope for Fódlan.

But more than that, if he was alive, there was a chance Flayn was too, safe and sound with the leader of the Alliance and his classmates, no less. Even then, it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

‘’I… Have one more question, if you don’t mind, have you heard anything about Flayn?’’

‘’Flayn? She’s not with y-… Oh goddess… Don’t tell me you’ve been separated.’’

‘’By the time I managed to return to the monastery, all students were either gone or dead. I couldn’t bring myself to look for her in the bodies.’’

‘’Seteth… She was with the Golden Deer during the siege, no? Then there is a good chance she escaped with them. I cannot guarantee it, much less give you false hope, but that Claude… He wouldn’t let anyone die under his watch like that. The last I’ve seen of him since the Siege was him flat out dragging Cyril, kicking and screaming out of the Monastery.’’

‘’Cyril?’’

Catherine sighed, ‘’Kid wanted to go back for Lady Rhea, you know how he adored her.’’ Ah yes, Cyril was being raised into Rhea’s own personal knight, training with the knights to get strong enough to protect her, after she left him such a strong impression, taking him away from the Goneril house. While a noble sentiment, Seteth can’t help but look back at it in a darker light, considering how much Rhea had manipulated the people, there was a real possibility she had groomed him into the role.

It seemed as if Claude shared that thought, considering what Catherine had just told him, especially given who he was, Mr. Riegan would no doubt he’d take offense to that.

‘’So Cyril is with the Golden Deer as well? I suppose Shamir must be worried sick over her apprentice being so far away.’’ He chuckled, but stopped once he realized Catherine’s smile fell. ‘’Did… Shamir…?’’

‘’Oh, no, no!’’ Catherine waved her arms, dispelling further thoughts, ‘’She’s alive, at least last I’ve seen of her.’’

‘’You haven’t been speaking?’’

‘’We… Had a disagreement after the fall of Garreg Mach.’’ She cringed, sucking air through her teeth. ‘’I wanted to rebuild the knights of Seiros, strike the Empire for what they’ve done to us, fight Edelgard back and rebuild the church. Shamir… Called me an idiot for it.’’

‘’Ah.’’

‘’I can’t say she was wrong, and honestly, after these years, I would probably have slapped myself in the face for such thoughts. She wanted this war over as much as I did, but we differed on our approach. I wanted to bring the knights back and get revenge for the church. Shamir thought as long as we bear the banner of Knights of Seiros, we will never get support from anyone.’’ Catherine sighed, letting her face rest on her hand. ‘’And honestly, I can’t say she was wrong. I was being foolish, hot blooded and not thinking straight. Shamir said she didn’t want to take part, much less witness me throwing my life away over a lost cause, and joined the Alliance, as they’re the best chance right now to beat the Empire.’’

‘’And you haven’t heard from her since?’’

‘’Shamir was always good at covering her tracks. She wouldn’t let me hear from her unless she wanted to. And considering how we… Left things after our argument, it’s fair to say she doesn’t want me to.’’

‘’I… I am terribly sorry.’’

‘’It’s nothing, don’t worry.’’ She waved it off. ‘’In any case, if you wish to leave for the Alliance, I could set you up for it, me and the knights would be more than happy to escort you into the borders until you’re safe from Empire.’’

‘’I cannot in good faith ask this of you, Catherine.’’

‘’You don’t have to ask, Seteth, you are one of us, and so is the Professor, we look out for each other.’’

He sighed, letting himself sink into the couch, once again preparing for another trip that could risk everything he’d been preparing. But it wasn’t as if he could simply avoid it.

/-/

The group traveled through the snowy forests at night, going through the safest route Rodrigue could provide, as Seteth, walking but leading his wyvern, kept staring at his mother, laid resting on the other wyvern, which refused to be lead by anyone but him, the picky thing.

‘’Don’t worry Seteth, by the time anyone even realizes we passed here, the trail will be cold’’ Alois said, pointing at the snow, snickering at his own joke. ‘’Heh, get it? Cold, because our trail is in the snow?’’

Seteth couldn’t help but chuckle at the poor joke, if only because he missed the levity brought by the knight’s attempts at humor. ‘’It is good to be around you again, Alois.’’

‘’It’s good to see you alive and well too, Seteth, I owe you for protecting Byleth during all this. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I had failed to protect her like I failed her father.’’

A pit opened in Seteth’s stomach. ‘’Y-Yes… It was the least I could do to her.’’

‘’Honestly, at first I wanted to help because I had hope she would join us once she woke up, a small part of me still does, however, for all I care, as long as Jeralt’s child is safe, it’s a victory.’’

He forced a smile, not able to tell the knight neither of those would ever come true.

‘’We’re getting close to the border’’ Catherine announced. ‘’A bit more further and you’ll be able to escape Empire territory, this area should be unguarded going by Rodrigue’s intel.’’

He recalled Rodrigue’s words, that even in the Alliance he wouldn’t be completely safe, as half the nobles were siding with the Empire and would not think twice before sending him straight to Edelgard. His best bet would be Riegan territory, as Claude was the only one he was one hundred percent sure wouldn’t end up delivering him to the Emperor.

While the other Alliance students wouldn’t also, they were not in charge of their lands yet, only Claude, being the Leader of the Alliance, was in full charge of his territory.

‘’Stop right there!’’ A voice screamed from the woods, several men in red armor revealing themselves.

‘’Curses!’’ Catherine said beside him. ‘’Ambush? But how did they…’’

‘’You are all under arrest by orders of Cornelia, surrender now or be faced with the judgment of both the Kingdom of Faerghus and the Adrestian Empire.’’

There was almost a full army surrounding them, and the knights seemed prepared to fight to the end, Seteth in his turn, took his spear and prepared to fight as well.

Catherine grabbed her Thunderbrand, the soldiers gasping as they realized just who she was thanks to the relic.

‘’Well,’’ she sighed, ‘’Guess things just got complicated.’’

The knights did their best to fight, but they were clearly getting overwhelmed from protecting the wyvern with Sothis in it, thankfully Seteth covered her whole head, not only for the cold but so her face was hidden, so she wouldn’t be identified even then.

He cursed as a sword sliced at his side, drawing blood, soon followed by an axe he barely dodged, that covered for an arrow fired at his thigh, piercing his flesh and making him drop to his knees.

It was too much for them, the soldiers were easily overwhelming the knights, and it would soon be the end for them.

A spear sliced at his shoulder, drawing more blood as he fell on the snow, his consciousness slowly slipping away as his wounds piled up.

‘’I… I’m sorry mother I couldn’t…’’

Someone pulled him up, ignoring his wounds, and throwing him onto his Wyvern. In his blurring vision he could see Catherine smiling at him.

‘’Catherine w-wait…’’

‘’Good luck Seteth, may the goddess be with you.’’

The Wyverns flew, any attempts to strike them down stopped by Catherine and Alois, as Seteth, in his wyvern, attempting to remain awake, watched the two being surrounded, back to back, as they spared him a glance and nod, smiling at him.

‘’P-Please… No…’’

He would never be able to repay them, to give back the hope they wanted so much.

/-/

Another year had passed, and he could tell he was worse for wear, avoiding any and all villages, merely following the map once he managed to localize himself after the wyverns landed.

He didn’t stop the journey, couldn’t stop, only doing so when his mother or the wyverns needed resting, and even then he barely allowed himself to rest, afraid of any shadow being an Empire soldier. He could tell from his reflection in the water he drank that his face was becoming sunken, his eyes tired and red, and he seemed to be losing too much weight, either from constantly moving, the stress, or simply not eating enough meals.

His resources were running dry as well, it seemed as if most of those depots had been taken around the region, meaning he had to make do with whatever he had left. At the very least the conditions were better for the wyverns, meaning they could fly for much longer.

Camping once more before the heat could create further trouble for his mother, he allowed himself to sit down, sighing. His body demanded sleep, but if he were honest with himself, he was afraid of it. Every time he managed to sleep the nightmares would follow him, of Rhea, Byleth, Flayn, Catherine, Alois, all dying while he was powerless to do anything. Of the child soldier he buried on the snow, his empty eyes horrified staring at him.

He was still ways to go from Riegan territory, which was why he couldn’t stop for long, instead choosing to scout the area.

In doing so, he quickly noticed a group of people close by, soldiers, wearing the Alliance Banner.

‘’He should be close by, come on keep looking.’’

‘’Oh no…’’ He whispered. ‘’Oh no, no no!’’

He started sneaking back, only to step on a piece of dry wood, making a loud cracking noise which was heard by them.

‘’Who’s there?!’’

‘’It’s him!’’

Cursing, he ran as fast as his legs allowed him to, reaching the wyverns and waking them up, strapping his mother into the wyvern that would not leave her side and releasing his.

He couldn’t fight that group, not in his current state, once again, his weakness would be the end of his family.

Not this time.

He started preparing himself, shooing the wyverns while he armed himself, but they were refusing to leave him.

‘’Go, go now!’’

His Wyvern obeyed, beginning flight, however the other remained.

‘’Curse you, the ONE TIME I want you to hate me! Go! I will hold them back, it’s all I can do!’’

He could hear the footsteps closing in.

Seteth, desperate started shooing the wyvern, which was starting to take flight, but it stood still in the air instead of moving away.

‘’GO AWAY! NOW!’’

The footsteps were right behind him, the wyvern staring at whoever was behind him.

‘’LEAVE! NOW!’’ he said turning around, spear ready to pull his final stand. ‘’I WILL NOT LET YOU GET CL-‘’

The face he saw when he turned was one he’d seen again and again in his nightmares.

A face that spent the last three years reminding him of his failure

‘’FATHER!’’ Flayn jumped at him, hugging him as tight as she could, as he remained frozen in disbelief. She looked different, her church clothes ditched for armored mage robes, even her unmistakable green hair now loose. But it was her, he would not mistake her ever.

‘’F-Flayn…?’’

He broke off from the hug, placing his hands on her cheeks as he stared at her face, unable to believe this was real and not a dream, unable to believe this wasn’t about to turn into a nightmare.

‘’I…It is you…?’’

‘’I’m here father, it is me!’’

She hugged him again, as he fell to his knees, finally hugging her back, as the tears he’d been holding for three years finally broke free.

A shadow stood before them, and he looked up to see another familiar face, the hair was well kept now, and he had grown a beard, plus his outfit was much more regal and fitting of a noble. But it was still him, the charismatic smile, more honest now, the eyes roaming everywhere, collecting every bit of info he possibly could, now looking more tired and aged.

Claude stared at him, as the wyverns landed back and walked closer to Seteth. With a relieved sigh, he met Seteth’s gaze.

‘’We finally found you, thank goodness.’’

/-/

''Can you feel it? Like so much rain, a pool of blood has fallen to the ground. As spears and arrows pierce the earth, it weeps. And even now... It weeps.''

''I-I can.''

''In order to survive, they kill. And so, the people of my world are lost in an abyss of suffering. They weep as well.''

''It's... Horrible.''

''The only one who truly knows the nature of such things is you.''

Her eyes finally opened. She was back at the holy tomb, where it all started. Sothis looked around the dimly lit place, hoping to find an exit; however by turning around, she was then face to face with her.

''B-Byleth?''

Her face was a blank, her usual stoic self, how she used to be before arriving at the monastery; before spending time with her students.

''Are you happy now Sothis?''

''W-What?''

''Are you happy? You wished to have a body, did you not?''

''Byleth wait, t-this isn't...''

Her stoic mask was broken, suddenly crying. Behind the tears, her gaze was nothing but spiteful towards Sothis.

''I knew you wanted to have a body, you mentioned it before, but I didn't want to die for that... I would've given it to you if I could... You didn't have to kill me!''

''I didn't... I didn't want this...''

''They're going to die, my students, the teachers, your family, they will all die. All because of you.''

It was too much, Byleth's accusatory tone combined with her saying Sothis' worst fears would all become true just like that.

''I want to save them, Byleth, I will sav-''

''You couldn't even save me.'' Byleth said, still sobbing and voice cracking

It was like a spear through her heart. She tried to get closer to Byleth.

''N-No, I didn-''

A sickening sound surprised her once she got closer to Byleth. She could feel something warm dripping from her hands.

Daring to look down, she saw a knife in her hand, firmly planted into Byleth's torso; the blood already dripping into the floor.

''N-No, I didn't... I... I didn't want to...'' She attempted to remove the knife, but Byleth held her hand in place, forcing her to keep gripping the knife, digging it deeper, as she stared at her, smiling.

Sothis looked back at the mercenary, blood dripping from her mouth and skin turning pale.

''You killed me, Sothis. I hope you find happiness like this.''

Byleth hit the ground; blood pooling around her. Sothis kneeled beside her, desperately, uselessly shaking her

''No, no, no, no, please no...''

She was already gone, eyes pale and lifeless, Sothis' tears falling on her face.

Hearing footsteps, Sothis looked up to see the Golden Deer class, surrounding her.

''Why did you do it?'' Asked Claude, his glare nothing short of vicious and judgmental.

''I... I didn't...''

''You killed her!'' Accused Hilda.

''You're a monster...'' Said Marianne, tears in her eyes.

''I...''

''How could you? You selfish demon!'' Lorenz spat.

''You're nothing but a fake goddess.'' Accused Ignatz

''So you're my grandmother?''

She froze. Turning around, she saw Flayn, holding the dagger that was in Byleth's chest not a minute ago.

''C-Cethleann...''

''Do not call me that, you don't deserve to call me that!'' she snapped, and Sothis almost jumped at the sudden scream. ''You... You're awful.''

''It was never...''

Flayn looked at the dagger in her hand, dropplets of Byleth's blood still falling to the ground. ''Your blood. It is in my veins, is it not?''

''W-Wait, Cethleann, what ar- No... NO!''

She couldn't move, something was keeping her, she could only watch as Flayn forced that dagger into her own chest.

''If it is your blood... That flows through my veins...'' Her skin was turning pale, she was bleeding out fast, falling to her knees. To her horror, Sothis still couldn't move, she couldn't do anything. ''Then I want none of it.''

Flayn slumped, in a pool of her own blood, her eyes, now lifeless, still staring at Sothis, with nothing but disdain.

''I'm... I'm sorry...''

The students began to walk towards her, closing the circle around her, weapons suddenly in hand.

Claude pointed his bow to her, arrow aimed directly at her face.

''It's time to pay for what you did. Monster.''

Sothis closed her eyes, almost welcoming it.

The last thing she hears is the bowstring flexing as the arrow was fired.

/-/

She jumped from her bed in a cold sweat, finally awake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> merry christmas :)


	9. Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Sothis finally regains her consciousness, she finds the world even more different than the one she left, and struggles with how much of it was her own fault.

The first thing she realized was how heavy and sluggish her body felt, the mere act of getting herself to a sitting position on the bed felt like an arduous task, even when she was already halfway there thanks to her rude awakening.

Her head also hurt, the migraine making it feel as if her skull was about to burst at any moment, even more when she attempted to recollect her thoughts.

‘’Wh-Where…?’’ She winced before she could say anything else, her throat felt so dry the air needed for speaking felt like razors. No water in sight as well, which only made it worse considering how thirsty she felt.

As the migraine continued, she powered through, desperately trying to remember what had happened.

Seiros went on a rampage, she attempted to stop her, to save her.

Edelgard got her.

She fell.

Desperately, she lifted her shirt, enough to see her side, where the spell hit, only to find a large scar in its place, fully healed already. However just remembering what had happened would make it hurt again somehow. Flashes of a second blast, one aimed straight at her heart, made Sothis gasp, as if she was just hit by the spell, almost forgetting how to breathe for a second, before placing a hand under her collarbone, feeling the smooth scarred skin, which she could now see tendrils of poking out of her shirt.

Her entire body felt weak, most limbs numb, and whatever wasn’t so hurt like hell; in such conditions, she almost allowed herself to pass out, drifting back into unconsciousness.

Then another memory flashed, Seiros’ agonized expression, as an axe tore through her back, the blood of her own child sprayed in her face as she fell, helpless to do anything. Edelgard dragging her away, taking her wounded, weak daughter to heavens know where.

She struggled to get up, but pushed on, her body straining to even get in a sitting position on the bed; somehow it was different from what she felt when she first woke up, it no longer felt like Byleth’s body rejecting her, just the body being too weak to do anything.

Was it a spell? To keep her from running in case she woke up? It didn’t make sense that Edelgard would keep her alive, much less heal her. And considering how her wounds were fully healed in such a short amount of time, this was no simple healing.

Finally up and barely keeping her balance, she placed a hand on a wall for support, the sudden shift in balance making her migraine get even worse. Her legs felt like two weak, numb sticks, barely balancing her in place, her body almost begging her to return to bed.

Ignoring how everything in her being felt, she carefully looked at the window, making sure no one noticed her. The door to the room was closed but no lock or key, thus anyone could get in at any moment.

It was sunny outside, some sort of small town, people, common folk, walking on the streets, no knights, soldiers or anyone she’d recognize. Her window for some reason was right next to a giant stable, where she could hear voices from.

Slowly, carefully she opened the window, and made sure to look at the distance from the ground, not wanting to repeat the mistake she did back at the monastery, much less after exhausting her powers on the fight.

There were some bushes under the window, which she allowed herself to fall into, after almost tumbling out of the window thanks to her weak body. Hidden inside the bushes, she remained there until she could barely hear any voices close by, her eyelids surprisingly heavy, as she cursed at the mere thought of passing out barely a meter away from the place she just escaped, much less hidden in a bush right next to it.

Once all voices were far away, some going further inside the stable, others leaving, she sprung out of the bushes, quickly moving into the street, almost collapsing out of dizziness from how fast she moved, but pushing on, as she had to at least figure out what was going on.

No one paid her any thought, meaning wherever she was, at least her face wasn’t well known as an enemy of the empire; if anything, the only people paying any mind to her were those sparing some looks at her clothes and state. She was barefoot, wearing a simple blue gown, which she recalled some people using at the medical area of the monastery, maybe she was being kept under the guise of a patient? Keeping her unconscious with potions until Edelgard could show up to collect her?

Would make sense, announcing her capture to the world would mean people could try to rescue her, Byleth, not her, no one would come for her, thus it would be simpler to lie and keep her as another patient.

But that still didn’t explain _where_ she was; the place didn’t seem close to the monastery, given she couldn’t see the building, which would’ve towered over any town surrounding it. Maybe the river dragged her far from it?

People were staring more frequently now, which she responded by increasing her pace, she needed a plan and fast. Her outfit was giving away who she was, and while she hadn’t spared a moment to find a mirror, she could imagine her face and hair looked no better.

Some commotion could be heard from the place she left, most gazes turning to stare at the loud yelling behind her, she was about to break into a full sprint, thinking they had already realized she escaped, especially when she noticed the gazes were constantly shifting from whatever was happening back there to her, as if the two were related.

Before she could do anything, SOMETHING dashed towards her, the sheer noise of people running away and things breaking being enough to warn her, just in time to see a giant brown blur crash into her, throwing her into the floor.

Two talons, as big as her entire head, firmly stabbed the pavement around her, keeping her in place as the giant creature stood on top of her but never allowing its weight to crush her. Sothis didn’t dare to move, as it’s maw drew closer to her face, eyes piercing her very soul, staring intently.

And it was then that she managed to get a good look at the creature, and it clicked, head no longer clouded by panic, as she realized what had just tackled her into the ground. Just in time for it to start licking her face, fondly hissing as she laughed.

‘’H-Hey, stop… Stop that!’’ She tried, unable to keep herself from laughing, even with her dry throat, at the Wyvern that was acting like a puppy who didn’t know its own size, thinking it would still fit on their owner’s lap. ‘’I’m serious, y-you’re getting me covered in slobber c-come on!’’

Her giggles were cut short as several footsteps rushed towards them, the wyvern still not letting her go, as she desperately attempted to flee, until a familiar voice spoke to her.

‘’My sincerest apologies! We let him out to stretch his wings a bit and he just ran off! Please let me h-‘’

Her son froze, staring at her, as she stared back at him in what must have been the weirdest scene that town had seen for a while. The wyvern kept switching from staring at her to staring at Cichol, almost as if it couldn’t decide on who’s reaction it wanted to witness first.

In the end, there was no big reaction, Cichol managed to keep a straight face as he managed to drag the wyvern away from Sothis, much to the poor thing’s despair, as it kept whimpering at her, and helped her to her room, where she now allowed her body to rest, trusting it to be safe with him around. After some much needed water, she was finally able to speak properly.

‘’I’m glad you’re safe, I… I’m sorry for worrying you, I thought I could fix everything… Save Seiros…’’ Cichol did not look back at her, instead walking towards the window, carefully looking out of it, before closing its curtains.

Silence

‘’Cichol?’’

He walked towards the door, opening it and looking outside, making sure no one was around, closing it and locking it with the key that wasn’t there before.

As her child approached her bed, she fully expect him to explode with her, to chastise her for being so impulsive, for risking everything to fix her own mistake, hell, for letting things get as bad as they did.

What she didn’t expect was him sitting on the bed next to her, hugging her tight and crying on her shoulder.

She recovered it quick, her motherly instincts kicking in, as she gently placed a hand on the back of his head, massaging his hair.

‘’There, there.’’

/-/

After Cichol spent a good hour on her arms silently sobbing, he regained his composure, leaving the room for a bit to wash his face and ask someone to bring her food and more water, as she was still desperately needing it. Once he returned, he sat next to her, releasing a deep breath, almost like the final remain of his restrained sobs.

‘’I apologize for… That.’’ He started, relaxing on the chair next to her bed. ‘’These have been some trying times.’’

‘’I do not understand what you mean,’’ her voice was still a bit raspy but she could properly talk now, and so she started to probe. ‘’You somehow got us to safety and from the looks of it, you are well yourself. Is this a secret base for the church?’’

‘’I…’’

‘’These people did not seem to know who I was, and treat you normally, did you arrange a secret spot to hide until I had healed? How did you even get here, I cannot even see the monastery from the distance.’’

‘’Mother…’’

‘’Some church members are here as well are they not? After all, my wounds are all healed and scarred already, no basic healing spell can do that, only the church has specialists readily available like that.’’

His constant struggle to follow her questions at first seemed like she was just not giving him any time to process all of it, but as his face darkened, she realized something else was going on, her anxiety spiking.

‘’Cichol, what happened?’’

He remained silent for a moment, attempting to hide his panic, before quickly rising from his chair.

‘’I-It would be best to have this conversation some other time, mother, you just woke up, it wouldn’t be any good t-‘’ He froze when she grabbed his wrist.

‘’Tell me. What. Happened.’’

He was unable to face her, eyes remaining firmly staring a wall, turning his face away from her, attempting to prevent Sothis from reading his expression.

Finally, he broke the silence, two words that hit her like a hammer.

‘’You slept.’’

She sagged, her hand finally letting Cichol go as it fell into the bed. The sheer implication of those two words left her mind spiraling into every single possibility, everything it meant.

She slept, as in, a Nabatean sleep, a sleep that can outright last years, if not centuries. She abandoned all of Byleth’s children, left them to pick up the pieces of a war caused by her own family, took their teacher from them and vanished. What would they think? Were they even alive? How long was it? And worse, what did that mean for Seiros who was taken by Edelgard?

Something snapped her out of it, Cichol placing both hands on her shoulders, almost shaking her. ‘’Five years, mother, it’s been five years!’’

‘’F-Five years…?’’

‘’It wasn’t a normal sleep cycle, I suppose you only slept because of your wounds and the strain in your body from pushing so much of your power.’’

She sighed, it wasn’t as bad as she assumed, however, five years is still plenty of time, even for them. ‘’W-Where are we then?’’

‘’Alliance territory, Claude was kind enough to allow us to rest here, until you woke up… If you ever woke up.’’ He sat down, both hands holding hers in a comforting manner. ‘’We are safe, he made sure of it.’’

‘’What happened in these five years?’’

‘’Mother p-‘’

‘’Cichol, please!’’ She snapped, meeting his eyes, almost begging him to just be done with it.

‘’Very well.’’ He closed his eyes. ‘’The monastery was taken by the Empire, you were hurt and I managed to secure your unconscious body. After that I spent some time hiding in Kingdom territory, but the Empire had already gotten it’s hands on it by the time I arrived there.’’ He hesitated, biting his lips in a wince before deciding to continue. ‘’Dimitri, the prince and leader of the blue lions was arrested, and the remaining students who were supposed to be sent home were all missing.’’

‘’Where is he being kept at right now? Do you know anything about it?’’

His wince grew.

‘’Cich-‘’

‘’Prince Dimitri has been executed.’’

It felt like a punch to the stomach. Similarly to when Byleth’s memories of Edelgard flooded her mind back at the siege, memories of the prince flooded her head now, the input overload being too much for her.

Flashes of past events, which she had never lived, which didn’t belong to her, kept invading her view, of a polite but awkward prince, who wished nothing but to be a righteous knight, who grew sick and disgusted at the mere sight of pointless bloodshed, with a naïve sense of justice Byleth hoped would never be crushed, even when she deep down knew it had to be if he were to survive in the world.

Of how even when he desperately attempted to keep it a secret, it was clear as day he was struggling with his own demons, desperately attempting to lie to himself and maintain his naïve view of the world as a way to ground himself.

He was a kid, a boy who had suffered a tragedy and was trying to pick himself back up, Byleth wanted nothing more but to help him, even if he wasn’t from her class, she made that much clear, even students from other classes were welcome to train with her, study with her and even went on missions she felt was too much for said classes, just to keep an eye out for them.

And now because of her, because she had not only removed Byleth from the picture but was weak enough to let herself pass out for five years, he was gone. Byleth wasn’t there anymore, a dark side of Sothis almost being thankful for it because then she wouldn’t have to suffer with the knowledge of what happened with her student, but her feelings, her memories, they were still there, and now they were crushing Sothis’ mind, the guilt, the mourning, the intrusive thoughts.

Did he hope someone would save him? Did he expect Byleth to come and get him out? Hold out even a little bit of hope for the professor who was there for him the entire time to show up and help him like she did all those times before?

And what of the other students? They had vanished, never even reaching the kingdom, had they been captured as well? Tortured? Murdered? All under everyone’s noses, and worst of all, knowing no one would save them, as their prince was dead and their professor had vanished.

The taste of iron in her mouth and a gasp from her son snapped her out of her thoughts, as she blinked, placing a hand in her lips to see she was bleeding from them, Cichol instantly grabbed a handkerchief to clean it, revealing the fresh wound from how hard she was biting her own lip, lost in her own thoughts.

‘’This was a horrible idea, I should never had brought this up so soon, you just woke up, for heavens sake.’’

‘’What about Byleth’s class?’’

‘’_Mother!_’’ He pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘’Did you not hear a thing I just s-‘’

‘’And do you honestly believe leaving me in the dark after all that had happened will be any better?!’’ She snapped, surprising her son.

‘’Very well… The Golden Deer are fine, they all seem to have escaped and returned to their homes, at least that is what Claude told me, but I do not see the point in him lying.’’ His expression got much sadder, ‘’As for the Black Eagles, Edelgard’s class, after the Monastery had been lost, I saw them all together, meaning they have at least survived the siege.’’

‘’And what about S-‘’

‘’Seiros was captured, I was unable to save her.’’ He said, with a heavy, pained tone, one that showed he too felt the same weight of failure she did. ‘’Ever since then, the Empire has been quiet about her, not even announcing her capture.’’

‘’Do you think…’’

‘’No.’’ He grasped her hand tighter. ‘’Even if I were to allow myself to assume the worst, Edelgard wouldn’t quietly execute the person she went to war with. If the Archbishop were dead, Edelgard would’ve let everyone know.’’

Sothis sighed, her heart still ached, not hers, the heart that was forced to share space with hers, the rightful owner of her body, which hers was stuck on, like a parasite. ‘’Thank you, Cichol, I am sorry for rushing t-‘’

‘’Mother…?’’

Both of them froze.

There was a third person in the room, loose green hair, no longer wearing a church uniform, instead opting for a much more casual outfit, carrying a plate of warm food Sothis assumed was for her.

‘’Father, did... Did you just call the professor ''mother''?’’

‘’Fl-Flayn, what did I tell you about eavesdropping?’’

She ignored him completely, turning to Sothis instead ‘’What did he mean by that, professor?’’

‘’I-It was a mere slip of the tongue Flayn, come on now, the professor needs to r-‘’

‘’You have the crest of flames’’

Cichol mouth clicked shut, Flayn’s eyes narrowed, as Sothis’ own widened.

Flayn kept mumbling to herself, her face in a frown as she lost herself in thought, ‘’Of course, and Lady Rhea's favoritism, your hair, even your powers.’’ She looked up. ‘’It all makes sense.’’

‘’It does?’’ Sothis asked, almost hoping for a wrong answer.

‘’You're her, aren't you? My... Grandmother?’’

A rush of emotions flooded Sothis all at once.

‘’Yes.’’ Sothis blurted out, much to Cichol’s and her own surprise, after so much lying, so much half truths, tricking everyone, it had finally gotten to her, she had to let someone else know, even worse, she couldn’t bring herself to lie so blatantly, not to her own grandchild.

A small selfish part of her wanted this because she wanted her family back, longed to have her baby granddaughter _see _her for who she was.

Flayn, no, Cethleann, smiled ‘’I always found myself having an odd connection to you, professor, I guess deep down I knew.’’

Sothis couldn’t help the small smile forming on her face

‘’So you were her all along?’’

And her smile died right then and there.

‘’Y-Yes, that is why Rhea hired her, Flayn,’’ Cichol said, attempting to cover up the truth, ‘’She was your grandmother from the very s-‘’

‘’Cichol.’’ She looked at him solemnly, slowly shaking her head, ‘’No. Not to her.’’

‘’I...’’

Flayn kept looking at the two, constantly turning her head, confused. ‘’What do you mean? Is something wrong?’’

Sothis sighed, there was no going back, she had no power for a divine pulse, and even if she had, she didn't think she would use one on her own granddaughter like that. ‘’Cethleann... I... I am not your professor.’’

Flayn tilted her head, confused, ‘’Well of course, you are my grandmother So-‘’

‘’No, you don't get it,’’ she said, closing her eyes, even with the siege in mind, even with Seiros’ attacks on her, this still felt like the most painful thing she’s ever done ever since coming back. ‘’Byleth, your professor, I was never her. While it is true that I was always a part of her, she was still her own individual.’’

‘’Was...? I don't... I don't get it.’’

With a deep sigh, Sothis gathered enough courage to finally say it. ‘’She is my host. I took over her body at the Holy Tomb, at the ritual. Her soul... Was replaced with mine.’’

‘’Y-You... Replaced her soul?’’

She didn't open her eyes, she couldn't face her own granddaughter like that. ‘’Yes.’’

‘’Where… Where’s her soul then?!’’

Sothis winced, even with her eyes closed, she could feel her gaze, the way her tone cracked as she asked the question, the way her breath slowly broke into sobs.

‘’I am… Sorry.’’

‘’You killed her?!’’

_‘’Flayn!’_’

‘’Yes.’’

_‘’M-Mother!’’_

She could hear small hiccups. Her granddaughter was crying because of her, because of what she had done. ‘’You killed the professor...’’

‘’Flayn, please, she di-‘’

‘’AND YOU’’ She snapped at her own father, ‘’YOU KNEW?’’

‘’I...’’

‘’YOU HID IT FROM ME, FROM US!’’

‘’We couldn't- They would have despaired, and with the war th-‘’

‘’So you thought it would be better to just hide it from us, correct?’’ She spat, there was so much venom in her voice, Sothis' hands were gripping at the fabric of her bedsheets, as she felt her own tears forming, ‘’For our own safety, as usual correct? Wheter we want it or not, our safety came first, of course.’’

‘’Flayn, please, I-‘’

‘’I do not want to hear it anymore, _brother_.’’

Sothis finally opened her eyes, to see Cetheleann staring at her, with such spite and anger, she almost wished she had never woken up.

‘’You... How could you.’’

‘’Flayn, it wasn't her fault!’’ Cichol said, unable to let her be attacked like that. ‘’She never wanted to-‘’

‘’It doesn't matter, Cichol.’’ Sothis said, looking down. ‘’It is the truth. Regardless of my feelings or intention about it, Byleth is gone, and I am at fault. I took over her body, even if it was never my intention to do so, what is done is done. I killed her.’’

‘’Mother, that is not-‘’

‘’It is the truth, Cichol. I'm... I'm sorry Cethleann.’’

_‘’Flayn.’’_

‘’Wh-‘’

‘’Do not call me that. Please, just call me Flayn.’’ She said, turning around. ‘’I need some fresh air for now. I shall return later, _brother_.’’

She placed the plate on the table next to the bed, and without ever turning back, marched towards the door, shoulders shaking ever so slightly.

‘’F-Flayn!’’ The door slammed before Cichol could even take a step towards her. ‘’I'll go talk to h-‘’

_‘’Cichol please.’’_

He turned to her, she was probably looking like a mess, having just woken up from five years and crying her eyes out now. ‘’It is fine... I... I figured we would have to cross that bridge someday... And I do not mind her hate, I rightfully deserve it.’’

‘’Mother, please, you do not deserve anything of such. You never wished any of this.’

‘’And yet here I am.’’ She chuckled bitterly. Hugging her legs, she burrowed her face into her knees, silently crying into them.

She felt something embrace her, Cichol's arms were around her, her son silently comforting Sothis as she let it all out.

In another part of the house, in a now locked room, Flayn sat on her own bed, also hugging her own legs, also crying.

/-/

A knock on the door snapped him out of his studies, ‘’Come in.’’ Claude said, without looking away from the papers, mostly maps of the lands around Empire territory and intel on what the Empire forces had been up to, not that he could put too much trust in those, given Edelgard had Hubert on their side taking care of any spies.

Cyril entered the room, looking a bit worn out if the bags under his eyes were anything to go by. Whatever he had to tell him was important enough for him to have to deliver the message as soon as he arrived, instead of getting some rest first.

‘’Claude.’’ He nodded towards the leader of the alliance, not a hint of fear or politeness in him, not that Claude would expect such, when your relationship starts with outright hate and constant insults, reaching good terms means you’re already over the polite phase of getting to know someone.

‘’Cyril.’’ He said, nodding back, not at all offended by his casualness.

It’s been a long road with Cyril, from the second he laid eyes on him, Claude couldn’t help but feel his blood boiling, given he was a child working not only working for Rhea but flat out brainwashed to worship her, he just reminded Claude of how the Church had a part in how things were.

Which was why he had no second thoughts in putting the kid over his shoulder and dragging him kicking and screaming back to his territory the second the siege took a turn for the worst.

However, as he soon came to learn, Rhea wasn’t as much of a heartless control freak as he so thought. Shamir, having spent a lot of time with the kid, enlightened him about it.

As it turns out, Cyril wasn’t even converted or anything, they had given him full freedom, and Rhea, while obviously not very close with him, made sure to keep him comfortable while at the monastery, even discussing with Shamir having him enroll on the Officer’s Academy as a student, which he obviously had no means of doing so on his own.

However, even then, he had an absurd level of worship towards Rhea, mostly given how she was the first person to give him a roof to sleep under and make it so he wouldn’t struggle just to avoid starving every day. Claude had to wonder if Rhea abused of that worship even if she was unaware of it.

In the end, both sides were wrong to an extent, Claude saw him as a child being taken advantage of by the church, with no say in anything that happened to him, and Cyril saw himself as a loyal follower of Rhea who was fully loved and respected by her.

Both slowly came to realize that as time passed, Cyril slowly warmed up to Claude and the time away from the Archbishop allowed him to see things in a new light. He didn’t hate Rhea, but also wouldn’t throw his life away for her so easily, which was something Claude was thankful for, especially given the intel Seteth told them about how the Empire had the Archbishop captive.

Meanwhile Claude understood that while Rhea did have some blame on Cyril’s worldview, she wasn’t even properly aware of how deep it went, and how bad it was, probably saw it as just a child worshipping her guardian, or something of the sort, heck, Flayn told him Rhea herself, according to what little she heard about the Archbishop’s childhood, would act similarly towards her mother, which in hindsight didn’t paint a good light about Rhea’s own mental state. That wasn’t to say that she didn’t fuel the issue by so readily having him train and work around the monastery, not to mention while she did help him with basic needs, she neglected some obvious problems, such as the kid’s inability to read.

As it was now, Cyril still had some small problems here and there with writing, given how late he was taught it, but Claude made sure he wasn’t illiterate anymore.

Now they were on good terms, friendly terms even, five years was a lot of time, and during war, no less, you’d learn that keeping grudges and hiding how you felt could very well mean just dying and never getting closure, so it’s best to just get it out of the way and find a way to work around your issues. And boy there were a lot of issues, Claude was thankful for Shamir being around, or else he’d expect the kid to have run off already.

‘’Sorry for taking so long to report, I prefer to give these news in person, given the weight of them.’’ He said, walking towards the chair in front of Claude’s desk, taking a seat.

‘’It’s fine, I doubt anyone was hunting for you personally, especially since your place in the Alliance isn’t something widely known. It’s much better than an alliance messenger.’’

‘’That it is.’’ He said, chuckling. ‘’I was lucky to be around when it had happened, taking some lessons and all.’’

With Seteth, of course, ever since the man had returned to proper health, Cyril, who was there to oversee things on Claude’s behalf, given he was the closest to the brother and sister duo, had asked him to give some lessons in Wyvern riding, which the green haired man was glad to do so, after all he probably didn’t have much to do there as it was. Cyril was far from an amateur, but nothing beats a fully realized Knight of Seiros, after all.

‘’Did something happen?’’ Claude shifted on his chair, taking a less relaxed pose.

‘’Nothing of the sort, don’t worry.’’ Cyril shook his head, allowing the Alliance Leader to once again rest on his chair. ‘’There are big news however.’’

Cyril looked around, almost as if waiting for spies to show up or someone to interrupt him, Claude noticed it and motioned his hand for him to continue, signaling that it was safe, after all if his office isn’t safe, nowhere is.

‘’The professor has finally woken up.’’

A mixture of emotions flooded Claude’s mind. He had been focusing on the war, almost pushing a certain issue related to the professor to the back of his mind, forcing himself to ignore it as there were bigger things to deal with. And once he found her unconscious, it was hard to not let the several extra questions popping up to take over his focus again.

But now she was back and possibly going to get involved. There was no changing it, he could only hope it wouldn’t distract him from his plans, or worse, get in the way of them, as much as he wants to know what is wrong with her, the war comes first.

He’d have to keep her under supervision obviously, and no doubt if push comes to shove and they have to fight together, keep her range and contact with everyone else limited, until he can figure out whatever is happening. Honestly it’d be much easier if she’d just go full Kronya and attempted to stab him on the back, at least then he’d know on which side she was on.

‘’That’s… Good, really good.’’ He forced his trademark smile, nodding. ‘’How long has it been?’’

‘’The moment she woke up I remained a day, just to check how her condition was, she attempted to escape the healer’s home, probably still thinking she was under attack.’’

Or trying to escape from him, Claude didn’t say

‘’But after that they did a full check on her, and it seemed fine.’’

‘’Anything odd?’’

‘’Odd?’’ Cyril looked confused by the sudden question, ‘’No, not really, Flayn seemed upset with something, but beyond that, nothing. I didn’t stick around much, however, as soon as I had the okay from the doctors, I took my Wyvern to the nearest Alliance mage to get warped as closest as possible to here. In total it’s been about three days since she’s woken up.’’

‘’I see.’’ Claude sighed, the gears in his head already working overtime. ‘’Get some rest, I want you to spend at least three days on break.’’ He ignored Cyril’s whine, he WAS always an workaholic, even without the Church’s influence. ‘’Then go back there and check on her progress. Whenever it feels right, ask if they have interest in joining us. Make it clear that we will still support and keep them protected if they refuse, I’m not trying to force them back into this, just asking.’’

Because everyone else is going to ask anyways so might as well get it out of the way. If she doesn’t, he’ll at least have a better picture of how things are going.

‘’Very well, I’ll go to my quarters now.’’

Once his friend left, Claude stretched, letting a long sigh as he sagged on the chair.

‘’Why do I feel like I just signed myself up to a neverending headache?’’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh Claude, if only you knew.  
Happy new years everyone!  
''it's february''  
SHUT UP!  
Hope ya'll had a fantastic holyday and here's to a great start this year!  
I took a bit to get this chapter done because this is the most difficult part of the fic for me, as I have everything carefully planned from Gronder Field onwards (Which is if I’m gonna be honest, when the fun REALLY begins), but from this part until Gronder Field? I don’t have many notes, just a general idea of how it’ll go and some things I want to add.  
As for this chapter, I was originally going to make it longer (less than 10k words? Pathetic) buuuut considering I spent a month on hiatus and wasn't even close to being done, plus struggling with a segway into the next scene after the Sothis and Flayn scene that wouldn't ruin the entire moment, I've decided to just cut it short here and start the next chapter with the next scene I had planned.
> 
> Also how about Byleth in smash huh? Honestly I'm a bit sad they didn't add God Shattering Star in the music pack because COME ON, that was such an obvious choice! But hey, they look fun and there are a lot of cool references to 3H, plus that trailer was hilarious.


	10. The Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A decision must be made by Sothis and her family, meanwhile all the key players begin making their moves.

After a week and a half,she was finally able to walk properly, because of the argument with Flayn, she had all but returned to the exact state she was in when she first woke up, barely able to move, much less stand up, between the nausea and the almost crippling migraine, it felt like she'd be bedridden forever.

However, once she started showing signs of getting better, Cichol assisted her on regaining her footing, thankfully her biology seeping into Byleth's body wasn't limited just to the extended sleep and powers, but also her muscles not atrofying after such a long period without use.

Cichol helped her walk outisde, no longer in that hospital gown, much less armor, she now wore more normal clothes, just a plain shirt and baggy pants, something comfortable. After a few days making sure she was good to walk again, Cichol insisted in having her go outside, something about it being either her going out, or ''him'' tearing through her room's wall to get to her.

Whatever questions she had about who ‘’him’’ was exactly were instantly answered when a Wyvern broke from the stable and dashed towards her, stopping itself before it could harm her, merely watching her, as if making sure she was okay.

The two just stared at one another for a few seconds, almost as if trying to read what the other was thinking.

‘’And who’s wyvern is this?’’ She finally asked, recognizing it as the wyvern that had jumped on her several days ago when she was trying to escape.

‘’You…Don’t know?’’ Cichol raised a brow, his eyes turning to the wyvern, who still sat, merely content with watching Sothis. ‘’I found it protecting you after Edelgard’s attack, it wouldn’t leave you alone, so it followed me wherever I went.’’

Her eyes narrowed, as she carefully inspected the wyvern, vaguely remembering something in the haze that was the events of the siege, her head still hurting a bit, however slowly piecing it together. The wyvern, growing impatient, whimpered towards her, which triggered a particular memory from right before she went to save Seiros.

‘’Ah! It’s you!’’

The wyvern perked up, before Sothis placed both hands on her hip and frowned towards it, the giant wyvern instantly cowering to the woman three times smaller than him. ‘’I told you to leave!’’ She said, her tone that of a stern mother, one she was well used to. ‘’It was too dangerous for you to return and you not only stuck around but picked a fight with anyone trying to reach me?! That’s incredibly careless!’’

The wyvern whimpered, as Cichol’s eyes kept ping ponging between her and the wyvern, confused beyond belief. ‘’S-So you know him?’’

‘’I caught a ride on him to reach Seiros, remember?’’ She sighed. ‘’To think I’d make such a lasting impression on it; then again, his owner probably perished in the fight.’’

The wyvern slowly perked its head again, almost as if checking if it was safe again, only for Sothis to start petting it. ‘’Alright alright, I can’t get mad with you, you did save my life after all. Yes you did, yes you did!’’

The wyvern shoved it’s face in Sothis’ arms, as she embraced it and kept petting the giant thing as if it was just an oversized cat.

/-/

In a display that had more than a few people turning to watch, one which Seteth was all too familiar with, the giant Wyvern laid on the floor and let Sothis scratch its belly like a pet dog, and his mother was happy to oblige, kneeling and rubbing its stomach while giving it childish compliments. The saint had grown accostumed to it, even with how quick his mother gained the wyvern’s loyalty, it wasn’t really surprising; after all, between being an all loving goddess, a motherly person in general, and her draconian nature, for a wyvern to pretty much imprint on her was no surprise.

No matter how stern he was, he had to admit, even if just to himself, Cyril’s expression as he arrived with his own wyvern and saw the whole scene was nothing short of priceless.

‘’Ah, Seteth, sir, the professor will be joining us today?’’ He asked, keeping an easy friendly smile.

‘’Only if she feels up for it, in truth, I just wanted her to get some fresh air and get some understanding when it comes to taking care of a wyvern, given she…’’

They both turned to Sothis, who was looking at them, still casually rubbing the wyvern’s belly.

‘’Has one of her own now.’’

Her apologetic smile forced him to look away, it was the same ‘’I’m sorry but hey, now it’s too late to go back, so can I please keep it?’’ Cethleann used to give him whenever she’d bring home a new pet while he wasn’t looking; clearly it was genetic.

Cyril merely hummed, before he started getting set up, Sothis taking the chance to leave her wyvern’s side to go talk to him.

‘’What is this all about?’’

‘’Do you plan on abandoning the wyvern?’’

‘’No! Of course not!’’

‘’Then you’re going to need to be aware of how to take proper care of one.’’

‘’Cichol, I am not a child!’’ She whispered, ‘’I know how to take care of a wyvern.’’

‘’I am not talking about just keeping one as a pet. This is a wyvern trained to fight, there are a couple of things you need to know, like how to properly keep it healthy and trained for once.’’

‘’I’m not taking him to war though!’’

‘’No, but he’s been bred and conditioned to it. You’ll need to at least train him or else he might become sedentary.’’

‘’That is… Understandable.’’ She cringed, aware he had a point.

The two turned around to see Cyril, prepping all necessary equipment to his wyvern, saddle, armor, straps for pouches, anything one would need for travel or combat. He wouldn’t need any of those during training, however, he was supposed to still put those in so it would become routine for him, avoiding forgetting or skipping anything important if he were to be rushed.

‘’Ever since we were taken here, I have been helping Cyril with wyvern riding. Claude taught him plenty, however he is too busy now, as the leader of the Alliance, to continue helping Cyril, so since I didn’t have much to do, and he was almost always here, I suggested giving him some training as a wyvern knight.’’ He sighed. ‘’I guess it is my way of trying to pay them back for keeping us safe. It isn’t much, but…’’

‘’I think it is a wonderful thing, Cichol.’’ His mother interrupted, still watching the Cyril. ‘’You were helping however you could, even if you could not be out there yourself.’’

He couldn’t hold back the smile forming in his face, it was odd, but even if their time spent those five years ago was short, Cichol missed his mother dearly, her supportive and uplifting nature, always seeing the bright side in everything, always trying to boost everyone’s confidence. It was why even in the darkest of hours, he’d push himself to survive, if only to see her again.

That all the effort wasn’t wasted, that he did manage to pull through and see his mother once more, smiling at him, made every single struggle, every nightmare he had, all worth it.

‘’Is something wrong?’’ Apparently his face gave away his thoughts, as she was staring at him confused.

‘’N-No, just happy to see Cyril’s training is paying off tremendously. You should get your wyvern ready as well, here, I’ll help.’’

Grabbing another saddle from the stable, he made to show Sothis how to properly place and strap it into the wyvern, with Sothis carefully watching all of it.

‘’Are you good enough to ride it? No flying yet, obviously, but if you are still feeling sick, I do not wish to make it w-‘’

She chuckled, cutting him off. ‘’Do not worry about it, I am as good as new. Alright, come on, Seth, lower so I can climb up on you.’’ 

That the wyvern somehow understood and obeyed her did not surprise Seteth, what _did _however was the name Sothis had called it.

‘’S-Seth? Did… Did you seriously name a _wyvern _after me?!’’

Sothis started petting it’s back mid climb, the animal purring, _purring_, less like a dragon trained for war and more like a housecat. ‘’Awww but he’s just like you, a grumpy child who’s actually just a softie.’’

‘’I… _What_?’’

Sothis finished climbing on it, settling on massaging the back of its head, as the wyvern pushed his head closer, to make it easier for her to reach 

‘’And he’s just the biggest softie, isn’t he? Yes you are! Yes you are!’’

/-/

She saw them from her window, it wasn’t difficult from the angle of her room, so Flayn was able to witness her father training with Cyril and the person who had killed and taken over her professor.

Those words lingered on her head, they hurt, they burned, and yet, nothing burned more than the feeling in her gut, a feeling of regret, of second guessing one’s actions.  
Flayn wanted nothing more but to hate Sothis, to feel anger for what she did, for what had happened because of her, for what she would never be able to do, for the person she would never be able to properly thank; all because of Sothis.

And she hated how difficult it was being to do so.

Watching from the window, she was seeing no empty husk, no possessed dead body, or parasite; no, what she saw was a woman clinging to whatever happiness she could. A woman whose face was painted with nothing but regret and pain. A woman who’s feelings she could relate, and that’s what made her so upset.

She _shouldn't _be relating to her professor’s killer, much less over what is clearly regret over the professor’s death. But then why was she constantly agonizing, thinking back to her outburst, to her storming out, and to Sothis’ reaction.

Not one of displeasure, not one of being insulted or challenged, but one of acceptance.

She didn’t deny her words, but she didn’t appreciate them, either, given she was on the verge of tears.

So what did that even mean? What _had _happened to Sothis? Why was she mourning the very person she apparently killed?

Her father knocked on the door, Flayn half wished she had it locked, but the girl would be lying if she said the food he brought didn’t make her stomach grumble in hunger.

‘’I brought you dinner… You’ve been here all day so you must be starving.’’ He said, his tone sounded so ashamed of himself, he couldn’t even bear to look her in the eyes; however it could also be that her current state wasn’t the nicest, considering she’d been crying all day.

‘’You can leave it on the table.’’ She responded, automatically, ‘’I will eat later.’’

He stood there, in silence.

‘’Cethleann...’’

‘’Why did you lie to us? To me?!” She spat, finally letting it all out. ‘’You fooled me into thinking the professor would be fine, that we would see her again, only to find out now we… We had lost her a long time ago.’’

‘’I…Wanted to keep her safe, my daughter.’’

‘’Oh, just like you wanted to keep me safe?’’ She was just lashing out, she knew it, but at that point she didn’t care anymore, her father was far from guilt free in this. ‘’Forcing me to pretend to be your sister? Isolating me from everything and everyone? I only remained here because I wanted to make sure the professor was okay, Father, that maybe with her we could end this, maybe I could even repay her for all she did for me… Now I find out it was a fool’s errand, that I could have gone and helped my friends all this time, be out there fighting alongside them, help make a difference!’’

‘’It is too dangerous!’’

‘’_Everywhere _is dangerous, Father! We are being hunted, and correct me if I’ am wrong, but Edelgard’s hunt has to do with who is inhabiting the professor right now, no?’’

‘’I… Don’t know how, but from the way she acted, yes, she had known from the second the revelation took its effects… And from there, she reacted to mother with nothing but killing intent.’’

‘’Of course, father, who would simply be okay with their mentor dying and having their bodies possessed by something else?’’

He frowned, ‘’Someone else.’’ His response made her frown right back at him, and they stood like that, glaring at one another, Flayn’s tears still running.  
With a tired sigh, her father sat down next to her, she moved a bit to make some distance between them as he did. ‘’I wasn’t… Trying to protect her like that, Flayn. Mother… She…’’ He looked up at the ceiling, looking for the right words. ‘’She lost Byleth as well, you know?’’

‘’What?’’

‘’Byleth, as I found out, had the Crest Stone of Flames, Sothis’ heart, forced into her as a baby, by Seiros.’’

That was… Horrifying, no wonder the professor acted so off, the poor woman most likely was losing her humanity every day, as her body became more and more adjusted with the soul of a god.

‘’So Seiros…’’

‘’She missed mother, in an unhealthy way.’’ That wasn’t news for her, she was too young to have met Sothis, but she knew building an entire church around her and forcing everyone to fear and respect her as a figure of worship was probably not something a mother would wish for her daughter to do as means to cope over her death.

‘’Did Sothis…?’’

‘’She was in contact with Byleth during their time together, their souls were connected after all. She was her friend.’’ He looked away from the ceiling, tentatively placing a hand on Flayn’s hair, she’d allow it, waiting for him to continue. 

‘’Sothis never wanted to come back, much less take over her friend like that. Do you know what was the first thing she did once she was awake?’’

Flayn had a feeling she did, considering what she had just heard.

‘’Cry.’’

‘’Indeed. She cried, and cursed Seiros, begging her to undo what she did, to bring Byleth back. In that time, she and Seiros stopped talking entirely, and she did the only thing she could: Attempt to carry on what Byleth would’ve wanted, protecting the students.’’

‘’And then Edelgard almost killed her.’’

‘’I was protecting her,’’ he began slowly caressing her hair, ‘’Because she blames herself for what had happened, and I knew so would everyone else, who didn’t know her, who didn’t see her as the kind soul who’d refuse such horrible resurrection, but as a parasite using their beloved professor as a host.’’

Flayn felt her stomach drop. She’d of course assumed the worst and cursed Sothis’ name, threw everything she’d fear right in her face, all her insecurities and regrets spat at her by her family no less.

Her father noticed it. ‘’I don’t think I can blame anyone from thinking that way, Flayn, much less you, like I said, there is no context, no way to explain this in a manner that doesn’t result in mournful anger, as it involves confessing the professor was killed to be replaced by Sothis.’’

‘’So you’ll lie to their face?’’ She turned to him; it was a cruel question, as she herself had no good answer, and understood why he did it. ‘’Let them believe everything is okay?’’

‘’Their professor is dead, and they would need someone to blame immediately. I could say it’s Rhea’s fault, but what would that do? She’s not here to take their anger.’’ Putting his hand on her shoulder, he pulled her closer, he laying his chin on her hair. ‘’I... Don’t know what to do here. All I can do is try to keep my family safe; what’s left of it.’’

They both sighed, staying like that for a while.

‘’It’s funny…’’ She chuckled, ‘’I’ve only known her for what? Six months? It was such a short time, especially considering our lifespan… And yet I miss her so dearly.’’

‘’So do I, Cethleann.’’

/-/

When Cichol told her he wanted to discuss their next move in her room, Sothis expected the usual, the two avoiding people and wracking their skulls for an idea or solution, something that she was surprisingly used to, given how short her time back to life had been so far.

What she hadn’t gotten used to, however, was the presence of a certain young green haired girl tagging along her father, who seemed just as awkward to be there as Sothis felt.  
Awkward was too nice of a word to describe the silence in that room.

‘’So…’’ Cichol tried, wincing as both women turned to him, waiting for him to continue. ‘’We need to discuss our next move, now that you are awake and able to properly move.’’

Sothis nodded. ‘’Yes, of course, however I must ask, Ce-Flayn, are you okay being here?’’

It was Sothis’ turn to wince once she saw how Flayn almost jumped at the mention of her name. ‘’I… I can leave if you wish me to. Father could tell me everything you two discuss, I don’t wish to… Hurt you.’’ She responded, unable to meet her eyes, to which Sothis instantly shook her head, raising both hands in an ‘’X’’ motion. 

‘’No no! I am sorry I did not mean it like that!’’ She almost yelled, surprising Flayn, who still couldn’t meet her eyes. ‘’I just… Thought you would not want to be around me after y-‘’

‘’I do not hate you.’’

Whatever Sothis had to say died right then and there.

‘’W-What…?’’

‘’I do not hate you. At least I think so.’’ She said, still unable to face her. ‘’I am hurt, of course, it is a lot for me to think about, and there is still a lot I need to figure out for myself.’’

She finally forced herself to meet Sothis’ eyes, taking a deep breath as she chose her next words carefully. ‘’However, so far, you have given me no reason to hate you.’’

Sothis didn’t know for how long she remained quiet, it felt as if her brain had stopped functioning, unable to focus on a single thought, spiraling with questions and thoughts, her eyes fixated on the girl, and yet distant.

‘’I do not hate you’’ Five simple words, but the very words she never expected to hear, much less believe she deserved, not after everything that had happened, not after someone would find out what had happened to Byleth, what she had _done _to her.

There was so much she wanted to ask Flayn, a part of her wanted to shake the girl, asking her if she was crazy, if she truly could forgive someone like her, who lied and tricked her for so long, who gave her false hope to see her professor again, faking it just for her own survival.

A warm feeling in her cheeks made Sothis realize she was crying, which was confirmed when her next breath was broken by a sob. Her focus finally returned to the present when she felt a small hand, covered by a piece of cloth, rubbing the tears off her face, almost as if to get her attention, snapping Sothis back to reality, where she stared straight into Flayn’s eyes, the girl now kneeling right next to her on the bed.

‘’A lot has happened to you, and there is a lot I still do not know or understand, however, you never wished for any of this, so I see no point in blaming you for it. You are as much of a victim as Byleth.’’

Her self control finally snapped, as she wrapped her arms around the girl, whispering a constant streams of ‘’thank yous’’ at her, as her kind granddaughter did nothing but respond the embrace, allowing Sothis to cry on her shoulder, as she calmly massaged her hair, comforting her.

‘’It is okay.’’

From the way her voice cracked, Sothis wasn’t the only one crying.

/-/

Any chances of a proper discussion that night had died the moment Sothis and Flayn broke down crying, especially given once the two were spent, they fell asleep right then and there. At the first sight of dawn, Cichol had brought them some food, waking them both up.

Sothis, for the first time since her rebirth, felt revitalized, a night of sleep not plagued by nightmares and insomnia wasn’t just rare, it was a brand new experience for her, no awful dreams, no waking up feeling as if her entire body was rejecting her; just peaceful sleep and a tranquil awakening.

It was so… Calm.

As Flayn woke up, they both sat on the bed, eating as Cichol merely sat on the chair next to them, quietly drinking his morning coffee.

‘’Do you mind if we start discussing things now? I can wait until after your meal.’’ He said, taking a sip from his mug.

‘’No, don’t!’’ Sothis said, wincing as she realized her mouth was still full, gulping down all the food at once, much to Cichol’s annoyance. ‘’I am good to go, after all, we already got delayed enough thanks to me, I’m sorry.’’

‘’None of that, mother.’’ Cichol closed his eyes, ‘’If anything, I am glad we delayed it, as you clearly needed that. You too, Flayn.’’

Flayn seemed mostly embarrassed, focusing on her food. Seemed as if she also lost control of her emotions during their little moment.

‘’Claude is aware of you being awake now.’’ Cichol said, getting straight to business. ‘’He has asked if you intend to continue the fight or stay out of it.’’

Silence once more took over the room. 

There lied the crux of their issues, the people protecting them thought they were protecting Byleth, their professor and friend, not a goddess that had taken over her body. And with the war, they were probably expecting her to return right to it.

‘’Claude asked Cyril to make it clear in his message that, if you refuse, he will not abandon you. Your stay in this town will remain the same, and he will do everything in his power to guarantee the war never reaches here.’’ Cichol continued, answering the question she didn’t even ask. Somehow she didn’t think Byleth’s student would simply throw her to the wolves at a refusal of going back to the war.

‘’If… Push comes to shove, we can still continue with our original plan, escape and live away from humanity, like myself and Flayn did for so long.’’

Both hers and Flayn’s heads snapped at Cichol, Sothis’ eyes narrowing as realization dawned on her. ‘’You wanted to train me to ride a wyvern. So I can escape. So I can survive.’’

‘’Indeed.’’ Her son sighed. ‘’While I am not saying Claude will backstab us, that still does not mean we are safe from the Empire, as the war is at a stalemate. It can go either way now.’’

‘’Wait…’’ Flayn spoke up, ‘’Father, what are you saying?’’ 

‘’The three of us are together and safe for now, we have time to plan an escape and begin stocki-.’’

‘’You want us to remain hidden.’’ Sothis interrupted him, cutting to the chase. ‘’After everything that has happened, everything we have gone through, everything we sacrificed, you want us to just _run and hide_’’

‘’That is not true, right father? You are not actually thinking that, are you?’’

His silence was damning

‘’Cichol, we can’t, not after all we have been th-.’’

‘’IT IS EXACTLY BECAUSE OF WHAT WE HAVE BEEN THROUGH!’’

Sothis flinched, her son wasn’t one to scream, much less at her. Flayn seemed to be surprised as well, hiding behind her grandmother’s frame.

‘’I can’t… I can’t do this again, mother! I thought you had died! I had to pick between you, Seiros and Flayn! I watched as they took Seiros away to heavens know where, I did not even know WHERE Flayn had been taken, much less if she had survived! And worst of all, when I found you unconscious, I kept second guessing, thinking you were dead, wondering if… If I should have saved someone else…’’

‘’Cichol…’’

‘’I felt so powerless! So weak! I could not do a thing as my family had vanished, as they were possibly killed _again _! I spent three years clinging to life, hiding and surviving, just in the faint hope of you surviving, I had given up hope of ever seeing my daughter again, _my daughter_!’’  
Sothis left the bed, kneeling right in front of her son’s chair, placing a hand on his cheek, gently moving his face to meet her eyes, comforting him. ‘’I am here now, son. We both are.’’

‘’I do not want to lose you again… Either of you.’’

‘’You will not. I promise it.’’ His eyes were starting to tear up; Sothis was starting to realize her mistake in treating Cichol, she spared no thought to her son’s feelings, she had no idea what he had been through, how hard these years had been for him. Perhaps just like Flayn, he too needed to vent his emotions.

And as such, she stood there, allowing him to quietly sob, Flayn moving to the seat next to his own, to hug her father, until he finally felt good enough to continue.

‘’I will not allow anyone to harm my family. Never again.’’

‘’Took the words out of my mouth, son.’’ Sothis smiled, her thumb gently massaging his cheek. ‘’And that is why… I need to finish this, Cichol.’’

‘’M-Mother…’’

‘’I won’t lie to you and say I am not being selfish, I am, I want to correct my mistake, to protect Byleth’s children and finish what she had started.’’ Cichol made to argue, however, Sothis got up, going back to sit on her bed. ‘’But it is not just that… Cichol… The people working with Edelgard… It’s them again, isn’t it?’’

Both father and daughter froze.

‘’I’d recognize their magic anywhere, the demonic beasts made from my children’s remains. The Agarthans are siding with Edelgard.’’

‘’They are.’’ Cichol sighed. ‘’We…Grew complacent, believing we had won, believing they were finally gone. And we paid dearly for it. Right under our noses, they festered.’’

‘’Cichol… Do you really believe we will ever be safe as long as they live?’’

He had no answer.

‘’They are siding with the Empire.’’ Flayn finally spoke up. ‘’Our best chance to take them down for good, is to take down the Empire.’’

‘’It is not that simple, Flayn.’’ Cichol pleaded.

‘’Claude is planning something. I do not know why, but it is as clear as day he has spent these five years working on SOMETHING. Father do you truly believe Claude would sit back and watch Edelgard take over like that?’’

‘’I…’’ His face gave away the answer even before he had enough time to think about it.

‘’Claude is our best chance to end this, to save Fódlan from those monsters, and to find Seiros. Not only that, but by staying with them, I can protect Byleth’s kids.’’

‘’I agree with her.’’ Flayn responded, and Sothis would lie if she said her heart didn’t skip a beat right then and there. ‘’Father I _cannot_ abandon the Golden Deer, please, they were there for me when I needed them the most, they _saved _me! The only reason we were even able to reunite was thanks to them. I refuse to repay them by running away.’’  
Cichol kept staring at them, cornered. It felt wrong to gang up on him like that, especially after everything he’d vent to them, however, it was now or never, they couldn’t wait much longer, and they _needed _him to be on board, otherwise he would just suffer more.

After what felt like hours of silence, he finally sighed.

‘’Between you two and Seiros, I feel as if being this strong willed is genetic for the women in our family.’’

They all chuckled, the tension finally deflating a bit.

‘’I have no choice but to agree, you two win.’’ He turned to Sothis ‘’However, I have one condition.’’

‘’Anything, Cic-‘’

‘’They can’t know. Not now.’’

She knew exactly what he was talking about, he read her perfectly. She was afraid of telling the truth, but she never expected it to last, she fully planned on telling Byleth’s children, come clean before they started fighting, so they would KNOW who they were placing their lives on.

‘’I can’t agree to t-‘’

‘’He’s right.’’

Flayn’s words felt like a punch to the gut. Turning to her granddaughter, her eyes widened to see her expression. Flayn was serious, dead serious, her face looked just as frustrated as she felt, more, since she was agreeing to lie to the people who trusted her, who protected her and helped her countless times, her first real friends.

‘’I do not want to lie to the Golden Deer, not after everything they had done for me. I hate having to keep lying and lying for the sake of ‘’our own good’’, tricking people around us, pretending to be what we are not. They are like a family to me.’’ She closed her eyes and sighed. ‘’But right now, they NEED to survive, they need to focus on this war and on their own safety. They cannot do that with the knowledge of what has happened.’’

‘’Flayn…’’

‘’It is for you as well, goddess. You are not ready for this. When I… Had my outburst… You made no attempt to defend yourself, no attempt to explain. You would just accept any insults hurled at you, let everyone believe whatever they want. The Golden Deer will be shaken up, their judgment clouded and unable to trust any of us, while you will be driven into despair again and hurt enough to impair your fighting skill. No one will win from this decision.’’

She was right, and Sothis knew it, but that meant keeping the lie, that meant keeping up pretending to be someone she wasn’t, keeping up giving false hope to these children.  
Could she do that? She didn’t really have an option did she? Everything was at stake here, and as long as she kept her mouth shut, they would all live to hate her once it was all said and done.

Sighing, she gritted her teeth, the answer clear, but not one she liked. Hiding her worries about her future for the sake of her family, she remained as calm as she possibly could, hoping to inspire confidence in them.

‘’Once this war is over, I _HAVE _to tell them.’’

Flayn offered her a sad smile, looking back at her father, who only quietly nodded, his fears for the future clear in his expression.

‘’And we will be there, to support you.’’

/-/

He stood alone, staring at the painting on the old house’s wall, a painting of a previous king, long before his father, standing proud, fully clad in knightly armor, his blue eyes warm and kind, the gentle smile on his face clashing with the armor fit for war, as if to showcase how this man, no matter how many wars he fought, never lost his gentle nature.

How deep has his bloodline sunk since then.

Dimitri, no king, not even a prince anymore, simply looked down, avoiding the figure’s gaze, almost afraid of its judgment, barely noticing the footsteps growing closer behind him, his mind already overloaded with all the voices of the dead haunting him.

‘’Rodrigue.’’

‘’Your majesty.’’ He could hear the man bowing, his hands balled into a fist in response. He did not deserve to be called such, much less the level of respect of any royalty. He couldn’t even avenge the ones before him, much less honor them. No matter how hard he tried to hide it, the truth was that he was simply a beast. Dimitri died on the tragedy, what was left was a mere husk, living by pure animal instinct, pretending to be a man. ‘’Our intel seems to have discovered movement around the ruins of Garreg Mach. Unusual movement, not the usual bandits and villagers.’’

Bandits, of course, nowhere was sacred after all, not even that place. Not after what _she _did to it. Now it’s merely another goldmine for bastards who have no regard for human life. Bastards he’d cut down to shreds if he had the chance, his blade, however, was being saved for _her_. All of this was her fault, and that witch would pay for it, this cycle of the strong trampling the weak she insists on keeping will end with her head on a pike, a victim of her own ideals. He had to, it was the least he could to for the dead now begging him for revenge.

‘’Empire troops?’’

‘’Not likely, your highness, they seem to be clearing the place up, taking care of bandits and setting camp.’’

‘’Just a different group, same as the bandits and the thieves then, seeing that sacred place as nothing more but a tool for them, to hide and use as they please.’’

‘’Or,’’ Rodrigue said, almost pleading in his tone, hoping Dimitri wouldn’t make up his mind before accepting another option, ‘’They could be turning it into a base of operations?’’

‘’…A new faction in this war?’’

‘’It is possible.’’

‘’Send more spies, keep an eye on them, and if their actions are suspicious, cut them down, if not, I want us informed on their every move.’’

‘’A-Are you sure your majesty? We could ally ourselves to them!’’

‘’Edelgard and her little minions are _mine_’’ he roared, finally turning to face the man. ‘’I will not accept anyone else killing her, I _need _to be the one to kill her.’’ Rodrigue remained silent, waiting for Dimitri to be done catching his breath after he was done shouting. ‘’Send a team to watch them, if they end up fighting the Empire, have them stick around and relay any intel they find out, if they’re SIDING with the empire, have the team take out as many as they can.’’

‘’As you wish, your majesty.’’

‘’Majesty, right…’’ He scoffed. ‘’I am no one’s king.’’

As he closed his eyes, the voices, never letting him have a single moment of peace, returned, agreeing with his statement.

/-/

The dungeon wasn’t exactly what most would think when hearing the word, for once it was well lit, clean and quite spacious. Edelgard wished to keep the image of a benevolent but strict emperor; however, no matter the lines she had crossed or was willing to cross, she couldn’t bring herself to force anyone to go through what she had.  
Which was why her prisoner was even there.

‘’Rhea.’’

The Archbishop, on her knees, praying once more, just like she did most of her time there, didn’t look up, her legs were chained to the walls, overly long chains that served not to limit walking inside her own dungeon, but outside of it, once again, Edelgard’s own experiences making her do slight adjustments to the punishments she dealt, her hair was messy, no longer covered in beautiful gold tiaras and flowers, her divine looking dress replaced with a plain white one, clean and impeccable, which she’d have replaced daily.

Her plates were empty, and that’s where Edelgard frowned. She hated Rhea, who she was and what she represented, with all of her being. But the Emperor couldn’t help but feel sick at having to starve the Archbishop. She needed a way to limit her powers, and it was either that or letting Those who Slither in the Dark help, which would no doubt have them do much worse to Rhea.

That very reason was why she was here, half starved, looking defeated and helpless, and not with them; the moment they were informed Edelgard had Rhea, they demanded desperately for her, that they needed her for experiments, for studies and research. Edelgard refused, she promised once she would never allow _anyone _to go through what she did, no matter who it was.

This was a compromise, it was all she could do, offering the group samples of blood they’d carefully taken from Rhea under her supervision, and whatever weapons they found stashed at the Monastery. In return they provided her with Aymr and their continued support, albeit clearly unsatisfied the agreement.

Well too bad for them, then.

A man made Heroes Relic. Just more proof that her father’s story was right, the Relics were no gift of the Goddess, they were made by mankind, and stolen by Seiros and her followers to force her own narrative. Worse than that, challenging and backing those who slither in the dark into a wall, forcing them to use their advances in horrifying ways.

The Church had ruined this land long before enforcing the Crest System.

Rhea did not respond or look up, the latter possibly from her weakness.

‘’This war is about to reach it’s end.’’ Edelgard studied her expression carefully, measuring any response or reaction. ‘’And neither her or anyone else has shown up to attempt on my life or to rescue you. SHE is gone.’’

Rhea’s eyes widened for a fraction, before going back to normal, mostly hidden behind her messy hair that covered her face. Once upon a time her hatred of Rhea had been a burning fire, fueling her, helping her become who she was today, allowing her to cross any lines needed, spill all blood necessary for her goals, while not once looking back.

However, like any flame, it soon faded, leaving behind a muted, almost numb kind of hate. The woman in front of her was not the monster she’d hope to crush, not an evil god attempting to ruin mankind who she would best in a glorious battle.

She was a tired woman, who’s expression showed as clear as day an emotion Edelgard was more than familiar with: Regret

She sat down, a chair having been placed there, as she had been there constantly during those five years, at first angrily shouting, accusing her, insulting her at every turn, exhausting herself in an attempt of getting not an answer but just a way to relieve herself of the pain. Now however? There was nothing left, she’d like to think it’s maturity on her part, even now, as she sat down, not to look down on Rhea as a superior, but try to talk to her, hoping she would give her the answers she had been looking for.

‘’I just want to know what happened to Byleth, Rhea.’’ 

Silence

‘’What did you _do _to her, Rhea?’’

‘’You’re wrong.’’

Edelgard frowned, ‘’What do you mean?’’

‘’You’re wrong.’’ Rhea finally looked up. Her face was dirty and pale, eyes looked sunk, and her jaw lines were visible. Even then she managed to smile, not a vicious or victorious one, but a relieved one, a weak one at that. ‘’She’s alive. I can feel it.’’

‘’And why or how can you feel it?’’

Rhea lowered her head again. Edelgard sighed, keeping her own frustration in check, not allowing herself to get upset over it.

‘’Answer me.’’

‘’I have done terrible things, Edelgard.’’ Rhea said, refusing to meet her eyes, ‘’All of it is my fault, and I do deserve what has happened, in all of its entirety, possibly more, considering how I am not at the hands of certain allies of yours right now.’’

Edelgard’s fist tightened, she tried to keep her breathing steady and the fact she was failing to do so bothered her more than she wanted to admit.

‘’I can only guess why you didn’t deliver me to them. And any answer I can think of only leads me to see how many mistakes I have done in my life.’’

‘’We’re done here.’’ Edelgard turned back, facing away from her prisoner and doing her best to keep herself calm.

‘’I deserve it all, Edelgard, but not her. Please don’t blame her for what has happened.’’

She was already walking away. 

‘’Sooner or later, either as a body or as an enemy, we will find her, Rhea.’’

The woman did not answer

‘’When we do, if she’s alive, I’ll be forced to cut her down, if she’s not, we’ll take the body for autopsy, to see what has been done to her, to see if it can be reverted. What will we find then, Rhea? Will she still be human? Bleed red blood? Will she even HAVE anything inside of her or is she just a husk now?’’

‘’I am… So sorry.’’ Rhea’s voice cracked as she spoke. ‘’For everything that has happened to you. For everything I’ve done… For what I have become.’’

‘’Me too, Rhea.’’ Edelgard sighed, linking her hands behind her back as she walked away, less to showcase superiority and more in an attempt to hide how hard they were shaking.

‘’Me too…’’ 

/-/

He sighed, finally allowing himself to relax on his chair, his very comfortable, very expensive chair, he reminded himself, still nothing compared to the couch, but they couldn’t have the Leader of the Leicester Alliance take care of all his paperwork on a couch, of course; that was most likely why they didn’t add one to his office, to prevent the temptation.

He ran a hand through his hair, putting the loose strands back in place as his mind was finally free to roam every single thought bothering him. Or would be were it not for the person who just entered his room unannounced.

‘’Got here just at the right time, huh?’’ The pink haired woman said, her hair no longer in pigtails, but a singular ponytail, which still seemed divided, as if she merely pulled the pigtails back and tied them together. ‘’Done with today’s paperwork?’’

‘’Finally.’’ He said, stretching his arms, once again allowing himself to relax on the chair, ‘’Honestly I am almost missing being on the frontlines, at least of the fifty different ways Edelgard could kill me, boredom isn’t one of them.’’

She sat on his table nonchalantly, even ignoring his annoyed glare, as there was clearly a chair in front of his desk for guests.

‘’Everything is ready and set for us to go. You got everything done on your end?’’

‘’My end…?’’

‘’Yeah, to see the professor again?’’ She raised a brow, ‘’You know, who just woke up?’’

‘’What else is left for me to do? I already had people prepare for our trip.’’

‘’Claude…’’

‘’No, seriously, what?’’

‘’Don’t tell me you forgot your own promise? Come on, if you have a plan now would be the perfect time to act!’’

He winced, so his hopes she’d forget that had been dashed, Hilda was lazy, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t smart, just that she didn’t feel like putting the effort. ‘’I didn’t… I was just thinking… It would send the wrong idea.’’

‘’The children of several houses from the Alliance plus three knights, and an infamous mercenary previously thought dead, all meeting up at Garreg Mach?’’

‘’See, when you say it like that, it sounds even worse.’’ He sighed, ‘’Yeah I get you, it would be the perfect opportunity for us to begin the counter attack, getting the gang back together after five years and all that, however, I don’t know, I’m not feeling it much.’’

‘’Not feeling it much? Claude, you literally worked your hide off to impress your grandfather enough to give you the position earlier! You’ve been working like crazy to keep the Alliance neutral as a distraction!’’

‘’Now I never said it was a distraction.’’

She glared at him.

‘’We don’t have the resources for that yet.’’ He shrugged.

‘’You are _the Leader of the Alliance_! Even if there are nobles siding with the Empire, there still is at least half of the territories siding with us! I know you’ve been doing something, you’ve been too busy for it to be just regular Alliance work.’’

‘’I mean we ARE at war.’’

‘’You were preparing for this, weren’t you? For when the professor wakes up.’’

He wasn’t, but he couldn’t tell her, not without revealing where he carefully injected most of their resources. Right now he was working with a skeleton crew at best, only giving off the image of having enough troops at his disposal. But if he told her he fully expect her to flip at him throwing all his resources on what was a big gambit; fairly so, he thought, but desperate times required desperate needs.

Seteth being around could mean the Knights of Seiros would help, whatever is left of them, but that was another can of worms, didn’t help that they were meeting on Garreg Mach of all places, especially after that incident.

‘’Look, I want to get back at the empire as much as everyone else, but I can’t really make a big move without it being seen by everyone. Whatever we do will have to be with a small crew and discreet, until I’m able to sneak in more troops into position.’’ He said, once more passing his hand through his hair in what was becoming a tic of his.

‘’So you _did _have a plan!’’ She jumped off the table, ignoring his annoyance, as she walked next to him. 

Sure, he did have a plan, one he just came up with on the spot to avoid suspicion on his real plan, and one he’d now have to go through while he hoped his real ones worked out fine. He didn't actually _expect _the professor to want to get back to the fight, much less ask for them to meet up like they had planned all those years ago. And now everyone was thinking this was his plan all along and this meeting is his idea, worse even, if he decides to do nothing, knowing his friends, they'll probably act on their own, so either way they'll strike early, the only choice he has is if he can supervise the madness or not. Yep, this was shaping up to be a fun week. He _was _planning on striking back at the Empire, and he _did _want to bring his old classmates into it, heck, his gambits were probably going to be ready in a couple of months at most, given his intel, but until then he’d have to rely on the troops he had there, and he couldn’t exactly transport a large army without raising some questions. 

It all relied on impressions. As long as the Alliance seemed neutral, the war would be at a stalemate, and if he could make that last a couple of months more, then everything would be ready for him to make his move and win. Telling Hilda or anyone was off limits however, as he was attempting to run a tight ship, what with the spies everywhere.

Honestly he had all but forgotten about the meeting, given everything that had happened to Byleth, and it wasn’t like he hasn’t seen his classmates in five years, after all he made sure to keep his promise of protecting them, keeping them as close as possible or at least keeping contact as much as possible.

Then again, misdirection would be good; if Edelgard were to focus all of her efforts on him and his little rebellion, then she wouldn’t notice what was to come. He’d have to play it careful but it was possible to make it work.

There was one thing however, one variable he still couldn’t properly rely on.

‘’Do you remember after we took down Solon? When Teach came back from that spell?’’ He turned to Hilda, who was distracted checking the papers on his table, official documents she shouldn’t even be seeing, not that it stopped her. ‘’When her hair changed?’’

‘’Oh, I do, she said it was the goddess blessing the professor with her powers, right? Don’t know how much of a blessing that was, the green definitely didn’t match her. I think Lysithea agreed with me, considering she kept giving her hair these worried glances from time to time.’’

‘’She told us the goddess had blessed her but that wasn’t all of it, right?’’ He placed a hand on his chin, stroking his facial hair, ignoring her chuckling at it, she always found him interacting with his beard like that funny, saying he looked like a teenager who just finished growing his beard and couldn’t help but be amazed by it. ‘’I recall her telling us the goddess, or at least an entity calling herself Sothis, had been in contact with her, speaking with her for a while.’’

‘’Honestly, considering how many weird things had happened, I think we just forgot about that. Odd how that was the least weird thing to happen those six months.’’

‘’But hear me out, if she was in contact with the goddess the entire time… Then why would Rhea need her to go through with the Revelation? If the Revelation is supposedly the Goddess giving a chosen one some sort of message, why would Teach, who had been in contact with the Goddess, need a ritual to receive her message?’’

‘’You’re doing that thing, you know the one, where you’re overthinking and just confusing people with questions.’’ She frowned. ‘’Please don’t go asking these questions to her, she woke up, and it was really rude when you did that after the Holy Tomb thing, an-‘’

‘’I know, I know, I’m sorry.’’ Claude said, raising his hands in a surrendering gesture. ‘’I’m just thinking out loud here. So hey, ready to see everyone again?’’ He changed subjects, hoping to distract himself from his own thoughts.

‘’Well, it’s not like we _haven't _seen them, heck, I went to visit Marianne a month ago.’’

‘’How is she doing?’’

‘’Much better, still as clumsy as ever, but now she’s way less hard on herself about it.’’ She smiled, her eyes looking away as she was probably remembering spending time with their friend. ‘’Though… I don’t know, something feels a bit off about her.’’

‘’How so?’’

She scratched the back of her head. ‘’It’s hard to say, she seems… Fearful of something? It’s almost like she’s a coiled spring ready to go off at anything. It kinda makes her usual joyfulness a bit forced, like she is trying to force herself to calm down?’’

Claude hummed. ‘’Well, hopefully returning to her old class will help calming her down, I’m pretty sure she must be sick of staying at the Edmund state by now.’’

‘’At least she’s easy to find, I haven’t heard from Lysithea for a while, she’s always busy with something.’’

‘’Always the hard worker, little Lysithea.’’ Claude chuckled.

‘’You know, if she heard you, there would already be several dark spikes on their way into your throat.’’

‘’Some things never change then.’’ He grinned, reminiscing over all the times he poked fun at Lysithea, how she’d always get upset but never really actually angry at him, as she never doubted he viewed her as a reliable friend and fighter, rightfully so.

Although she was busy, he had seen her far more often than Hilda, after all he personally requested her help with Cyril. He was way too proud to accept pity, much less when it came to his reading issues, so Claude figured someone who’d be as harsh as possible on him would fix things. Lysithea would help him, of course, and do the best she can, however, she wouldn’t baby him, much less expect him to need help. He remembered whenever they’d hold group study sessions, Lysithea was BRUTAL. She expected you to be giving one hundred percent of yourself and do your best, never slowing down, as if time itself was against her.

It was a match made in heaven, Cyril, hard working and not wishing for pity, and Lysithea, harsh and expecting everyone to put at least as much effort in the current task as she is.

Plus, and Claude could never say this out loud, or else he’d be teleported into a volcano, but those two just made the most adorable couple together. He couldn’t help but chuckle at how awkward they would be some times.

‘’Speaking of the baby of the group, Flayn will also be there.’’

It had been a while since they last saw her, about two years, Claude couldn’t exactly go and visit her considering their location was supposed to be a secret, especially with Byleth still in her unconscious state and Seteth in no condition to fight. 

Finding the green haired man after so long was a relief in more than one way, Claude was already having second thoughts about him taking Flayn to safety, wondering if he had split the two apart after all, especially with how restless Flayn was during those three years, Claude constantly finding her still awake in the middle of the night just walking around the place, trying to distract herself. At times he felt like he was keeping her prisoner, he had to constantly remind himself she didn’t have a place to go, and shush the voice at the back of his head saying she didn’t have a place to go because he took her away from Seteth.

It got about ten times worse once she revealed he’s her father, not her brother.

Honestly, Hilda accepting his invitation to drop by more frequently had been a godsend, she knew exactly what to say or do to help distracting Flayn, from just spending time working on her hair or getting her to try some new outfits to having a flat out girls sleepover on his state of all places, managing to rope Marianne into that as well.

The two had gotten really close, and Claude was glad for that, as much as he wished, he couldn’t exactly help Flayn much himself, so he was glad he could at least get someone who could. His other classmates, whenever they managed to visit him also helped a lot in their own little ways, which always helped him remind himself why he was doing what he was doing. 

And then they finally found Seteth, at death’s door, and ready to throw his life away attacking whoever even came close to the professor. At that very moment, all his doubts over taking Flayn with him died instantly. He couldn’t even imagine what would’ve happened if she went with him.

It was pretty hard to see him, especially given how the man always had this aura of being in constant control of things, he couldn’t even imagine how much worse it was for Flayn. Thankfully he managed to quickly set up a place for them in an unremarkable village, only letting a couple of trusted scouts go there every once in a couple of weeks to check in on them to not attract any suspicion, leaving as few tracks as possible on their way. And from what he had heard, Seteth made a steady recovery and is better than ever, which he was really thankful for.

He went back to thinking of his classmates, those were the happy thoughts he kept whenever he needed a smile, they each went their own ways, but never strayed too far, Ignatz and Raphael were pretty much his knights, while Leonie was a mercenary under his constant employ, which was just a cute way of saying she’s also a knight but wants to be considered a mercenary out of pride.

As for Lorenz…

‘’Claude?’’ Hilda asked, making him realize he was lost in thought once again.

‘’Ah, sorry, just thinking about what’s next for us.’’ He sighed, walking past her towards the door. ‘’Very well then, I’ll go double check my things for the trip.’’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EY EVERYONE IM NOT DEAD  
AT LEAST NOT SO FAR
> 
> So I feel like I owe everyone an explanation on why this chapter, which has been basically sitting on my hard drive almost fully complete for two months, took so long  
You see, literally a day after I posted the last one, my laptop's spacebar key fell off, and boy did it make typing in general pretty painful. To make matters worse, I wounded my left hand, which didn't affect handwriting since I'm right handed, but typing? Coupled with that faulty spacebar? Yeah it was pretty dang annoying.  
And then my classes started, which meant getting readjusted to college, and THEN they were cancelled in favor of online classes thanks to the pandemic, meaning I'd have to readjust AGAIN a week later.  
As for now? I won't promise to get like, this fic done by next month, however, I've already stated that I have no plans of stopping until I'm done with the story. My hand's better, I'm getting the hang of the classes, and I was borrowed another computer for college work, since I DO need a proper keyboard to type texts and all, especially with online classes, so I'll be using that to write from now on.  
I also saw the Ashen Wolves DLC, I won't guarantee I'll add much of the extra lore or characters from there into the fic(Except Byleth's mom, since nothing there goes against or bends what was established), given it'd feel shoehorned, as they were never planned to show up in the fic.  
As usual, thank you for the comments, and stay safe everyone! See you next update, hopefully a lot sooner!


	11. Class Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Sothis and her family make it back to Garreg Mach, they start the preparing for their fight against the Empire, finally reuniting with Byleth's students and realizing what has changed.

The day had finally arrived, they knew where they had to go, and they knew what they had to do, Sothis could barely sleep that night, anxious about going back to where it all happened, the place where she lost five years of her life and left everyone to fend for themselves.

She finished packing her last bags, mostly necessary things Cichol had gotten her, considering she barely had anything of her own. Switching the casual outfit she grew used to for the outfit Cichol had left for her, she found herself confused.

‘’Is everything ready?’’ Cichol knocked on her door, entering after she unlocked it for him. 

‘’Yes, just… Was Byleth’s outfit too damaged?’’ She said, motioning to her new outfit, the colors were the same to Byleth’s own, even keeping the insignia, but instead of her shorts and corset, it was a shirt and baggy pants, both well slid inside several new pieces of armor for her arms, legs and around her abdomen. ‘’Were you not able to get something similar?’’

‘’Ah, yes, of course, well, considering you’ll be using your wyvern now-‘’

‘’Seth.’’

‘’I refuse to call him that.’’ He sighed, ‘’I felt it was appropriate to change your outfit to something more helpful in air combat, more protection around the legs for once, and more armoring in the arms and hands so you can properly hold the reigns without hurting yourself. And of course, more armor in general given you’ll be an easier target.’’

‘’That is good and all’’ She said, crossing her arms awkwardly, not used to all the new armor yet. ‘’However I do not recall ever mentioning I planned on taking Seth to an actual fight.’’

‘’Well I thought it would be an obvious choice…’’

‘’Cichol.’’

‘’Alright!’’ He threw his arms up, giving up. ‘’With all due respect, Byleth’s choice of clothing was… Uncomfortable, to say the least, much less considering she spent most of her time around children.’’

‘’Was it that bad?’’ She asked honestly, not really seeing the issue.

‘’…You must be joking.’’ He coughed, ‘’In any case, it was already awkward enough that she wore those, however, I refuse to go out with _you_ dressing like that.’’

Was it that bad? She didn’t really care nor give it much thought. It was probably for the best then that Cichol never knew about her outfit when she was stuck on Byleth’s mind, which from what she recalled, was even worse than Byleth’s usual attire, not helped by the form she had taken back then. Still a bid odd why he was so adamant in her changing outfits like that.’’

‘’I also do not want Flayn to get any bad influences.’’

Ah, that made way more sense.

‘’I suppose these are the male outfits for the mercenaries Byleth worked with?’’ She said, changing subject, testing her mobility, spinning her arms and doing small hops in place. ‘’It is not as easy to move around compared to before, however as far as armor goes, it is still really light, so I am not complaining’’

‘’It also leaves far less open spots for magic blasts.’’ Cichol said, reminding them both of how Edelgard had gotten her.

‘’Well, I thank you, son, while your intentions may not have been the best…’’ She said, chuckling at his annoyed glance, ‘’I can’t deny it will be helpful.’’

Grabbing her bags, the two left her room, on their way meeting the remaining member of their family, Flayn had everything already packed and ready to go, making no attempt to hide her excitement in seeing her classmates again.

‘’Ah, Sot-I mean, P-Professor, yes! Good to see you up and ready!’’

She would be lying if she said hearing Flayn calling her by her name only didn’t hurt a small bit, she understood the need of pretending to be Byleth, even if she hated the idea, however even then, when they were alone, her granddaughter only called her by name, or still referred to her as Byleth, to get used faster. Cethleann had made it clear it was not out of hate, but because she still needed some time to get used to things, the changes were sudden, and unlike Cichol, she had spent more time with Byleth than with

Sothis, meaning her bond with the former was stronger, thus harder to move on from.

As much as Flayn drilled in her mind that it wasn’t her fault, Sothis still couldn’t help but feel the blame was at the very least partially hers, given without her around, said bond wouldn’t have been broken in the first place.

‘’Y-Yes, we are all set to go now.’’ She said, attempting to not let it show how that small detail had bothered her a bit. ‘’What of Cyril?’’

‘’Already waiting for us, he has already prepared a safe route for us, we should be there in no more than a few days.’’ That was good, while their destination was anything but unknown to any of them, there was still the problem of how they’d reach it unnoticed by the patrols. Going by intel Cichol had gotten from Claude, Empire Troops would still scout the area every now and then, clearly Edelgard herself was aware of what the Monastery meant for her revolution, thus made sure to keep an eye on any suspect movements towards the place.

That meant they’d need to play it careful if they planned to make it their base.

Settling their things on the Carriage, they sat inside of it, already preparing for the trip. Cichol left the two alone, going to check some final things and Cyril was busy reading the map to triple check their course. Going by Cyril’s word, the first portion of the trip would be by carriage, as anything else coming from such a small village would be suspect, then they’d stop by a small hidden settlement where they’d be warped by a mage to another area closer to the Monastery, then it’d be a matter of travelling by foot for a day or two. They made sure to keep enough supplies, and the settlement would have more for them, thus they’d be safe.

As for the Wyverns, they were going to be delivered later by soldiers disguised as travelers, once they were safe in the monastery, to avoid them being found. Two travelers going through Alliance area with their wyverns would cause some suspicion however they wouldn’t be wanted faces like she, Cichol and Cethleann are, thus they wouldn’t have to hide as much as Sothis’ family.

‘’I must ask however, why the Monastery?’’ Flayn turned to her, her expression becoming somewhat more weary of her. ‘’I understand you were asked to remain in hiding, but isn’t using the promise playing with everyone’s expectations?’’

‘’It is… Not simply to keep the role.’’ She said, still feeling a bit guilty. ‘’I am using Byleth’s promise, there is no hiding in that, and I am ashamed of it, make no mistake.

However, the Monastery is our best chance for survival.’’

‘’I-I didn’t mean to accuse you, I am so s-‘’

‘’It is okay Flayn…’’ Sothis placed a hand on her shoulder. ‘’I do not wish to fool anyone any further than necessary, the sooner I can reveal the truth and allow Byleth to be properly mourned the better. However, we do need to remain at the monastery, especially if we are going to be facing the Agarthans.’’

‘’It is?’’

‘’The Holy Tomb, where I once rested, was protected with a powerful spell, back when I had my full power. It repels any sort of massive magic attack against the place, and Seiros built the Monastery above it for that very reason, as it would make the entire structure protected from the Agarthans’ attacks.’’

It was pretty clever of her daughter in hindsight, the Monastery was supposed to be safe haven for her and any remaining Nabateans, thus making it literally immune to the Agarthans’ strongest weapons meant it was the safest place in the world for them. It made her happy that even if unintentionally, she still managed protected her children for centuries.

Of course, that also meant Seiros grew less weary of any threats, most likely putting faith in her mother’s protection from any threats. Which meant the Agarthans, while slow and less effective than they hoped for, were able to strike at not only the church but all of Fódlan.

‘’So it wasn’t just to keep the lie going?’’

‘’If I could, I would have selected any other place. But we need the Monastery, for everyone’s protection. I could not think of any other good reason for us to go back there, especially after Seiros’ rampage, so I had to rely on that.’’  
Flayn’s expression not for the first time was conflicted. She understood Sothis’ internal struggle, of wanting to help Byleth’s children, but being unable to do so without lying to them, to have to fool them for their own safety, knowing in the end it would just hurt them more. She was afraid, but she was more afraid of her friend being forgotten by her loved ones, never aware of her passing, of what had transpired in that accursed ritual.

‘’I’m sorry… For asking you to do this.’’ Flayn said, looking down, almost flinching when Sothis wrapped her hands around hers. 

‘’There weren’t any good options, and yours was the best one, dear. You told me to stop blaming myself, so don’t start it yourself.’’

She gave Sothis a weak smile, which was reciprocated.

‘’In all honesty, I am just glad I can talk to you about any of this at all.’’

/-/

They arrived around sunset, still enough light for them to start working on setting everything up, thankfully, his soldiers were already at it, with Claude not only helping with the labor, against the soldiers asking him not to, and trying to organize everything. Seemed like they’d have to camp inside the cathedral, which was mostly intact.

‘’Guess I can thank Edelgard for not burning the entire place down. Then again, those things almost beat her to it anyways.’’

Hilda was with him, and complaining all the way through the manual labor, which if anything, gave him a good laugh. They arrived earlier, as expected, he didn’t want everyone arriving at once, that’d be way too suspicious, thus he gave everyone different time tables to leave, with his mages in the warping points keeping him informed through letters, also warped to him with magic.

It was a shame they couldn’t teleport everyone directly to him, but that’s the struggle with magic, teleporting letters was much simpler than a person, and even then, from that distance, it required some of the finest mages in the Alliance army.  
Sitting down on some rubble after finishing most of the preparations, he allowed himself to relax for now, the soldiers insisting he rested, and his body begging him to accept it.

His scouts were already venturing through the forests surrounding the place, making sure no Empire troops were close, which he expected, as he managed to get a quick summary of their usual routine from one of his spies.

Lots of work already on top of the work he’d been doing in secret, all for what amounts to a fake operation to buy time and keep his friends entertained, he really couldn’t wait for them to finish setting camp so he could just allow his body to pass out for the next ten hours or so.

‘’Ugh, is THIS why you had me travel early with you?’’ Hilda asked, sitting down next to him and sighing, caressing her hair to make sure the work didn’t leave anything messed up. ‘’And here I thought you just didn’t want to travel alone, you know, wanting company from a friend?’’

‘’Shared misery is misery halved .’’ Claude said, laughing, offering her a canteen of water. She didn’t even drink much of it, showing how much of her complaining was just for the sake of it. ‘’Besides, you were the one bothering me to set this up, might as well help with it.’’

‘’Sure, blame me for your plans. We both know you always had this planned from the get go.’’

_‘’Oh, if only you knew Hilda.’’_

‘’Sir!’’ Claude got up, against the screams of every fiber of his exhausted body, to meet one of the soldiers, rushing towards him. 

‘’The scouts have returned! There are no troops around the area for now!’’

‘’Thank you, soldier, we’ll stay inside the Cathedral still.’’ Second floor too, not really a place they were allowed, but he was sure Lady Rhea would forgive them for it. The first floor would look empty, and while on the second floor there was the risk of any lights or motions being easy to pinpoint by anyone watching the tower, they could always cover the windows. ‘’Tell everyone to get some rest, the first watch will be mine, I doubt I’ll be able to sleep easily for now anyways.’’ He sighed, fully aware of how tense he was, even with his exhaustion. Better safe than sorry, instead of risking not being able to sleep for now and waste a night, he’d just exhaust his body until it couldn’t take it anymore.

‘’Sir, there’s more! There are reports of bandits in the area. They’ve been pillaging the villages and ransacking the monastery every now and then.’’

That could be a problem. They didn’t need some bandits raising an alarm that there were people there; which meant he’d need to watch out for them too, great, who needs sleep anyways.

‘’I see, don’t worry about it, whatever the case, in the state we are, whoever tries to reach us will be set for an ambush, so in either way we’re good. The others should be arriving tomorrow, meaning soon we’ll have back up.’’

‘’Yes sir! Speaking of the others, one of the mages had this delivered to you, it’s from the Edmund estate.’’

That was more than enough for Hilda to get up and grab the letter faster than any motion she had done since they had arrived there. Lazy little…

‘’Marianne? Why did she send you a letter?’’

‘’Beats me, not like I had a chance to read it yet.’’

Her eyes widened as she realized she had pretty much ripped the letter from his hands, walking next to him and opening it so both can read it.

‘’Sure, of course, anyone can just read letters sent to the Alliance Leader now I guess.’’

‘’Oh quit whining, unless you and her are hiding something?’’ She said, playfully taking her time to open the card, giving him a teasing glare, which Claude merely responded with an annoyed eyebrow raise. ‘’See? Thought so!’’

Opening the neatly folded paper, Hilda moved a bit, hoping to get moonlight on it to help them read it better, Claude moving next to her to try and see the letter.

Reading the contents, they couldn’t help but let their shoulders sag in a mixture of confusion and barely contained disappointment.

‘’Oh…’’

/-/

Their arrival was mostly quiet, no scouts, no soldiers, no surprise, really, what kept it from being a peaceful arrival was the fact they pretty much showed up in the middle of what could only be described as a battlefield.

The second they got inside the walls, an unknown man attacked them, yelling something about reinforcements arriving, and after that all hell broke loose, Cichol subdued the man instantly to protect them, others showed up, and Sothis had to fight them with whatever weapon she could find from them, as she didn’t exactly arrive waiting for a fight, and they sure as hell wouldn’t give her time to go back to her bags and collect something.

‘’What is going on?!’’ Cichol yelled, his spear slashing a poor fool who attempted to reach Flayn. ‘’These are not Empire Soldiers, they are… _W-Who_ are they?!’’

‘’I do not think asking them is an option here!’’ She said, ducking from a slash aimed at her throat, then smashing her armored elbow into the man’s ribcage and stealing his sword, silently apologizing to her son for doubting the extra armor.

Flayn was struggling to fight, given any spells she could cast would reveal the position to any scouts, so she was forced to physically fight, something she was trained on, but far from her specialty.

One of the walls broke as a pink figure flew through it, crashing right at her feet, covered in dirt and dust.

‘’H-Hilda?!’’ Flayn gasped

The pink haired girl got up, grabbing her axe with gritted teeth. ‘’I am going to _kill you_!’’ She turned, finally noticing them. ‘’Oh, hi Flayn! It’s great to see you! Professor! Really like the new outfit!’’

Finishing that, she angrily threw her axe at the man running through the now broken wall, most likely the one who threw her through it in the first place, hitting his hand and forcing him to drop his own axe, then tackling him, both bodies falling on the floor, as the girl pummeled the man, who desperately attempted to escape, realizing she was more dangerous _without_ her weapon.

‘’I… Thank you?’’ Her eyes widened as another attacker came through the hole in the wall, this time shot dead by an arrow before he even closed the distance on them.

‘’Good work Hilda, you’ve found them!’’

Hilda’s response was an angry scream as she sat on top of the man double her size, who had given up fighting entirely and just desperately attempted shielding his face as she pummeled him down.

‘’Hey everyone, glad to see you could make it!’’ Claude said, not at all phased by his friend savagely knocking the attacker unconscious with nothing but her bare hands. ‘’We’ve ran into a bit of a bandit problem here, seems like these guys were ransacking the place, and didn’t like people actually USING the stuff they wanna steal, so…’’

‘’Claude! Did anyone else arrive?’’

‘’Seteth, I’m glad to see you well.’’ He said, offering the man a handshake, which he gratefully accepted, their mutual respect, even in the current circumstances, clear as day.

‘’Yeah, the bulk of the fight is over already, don’t worry, these were just the stragglers. Can’t let them make a ruckus and alert the Empire scouts, can we?’’

‘’You killed all of them?’’ Sothis asked, attempting to hide her horror. Cichol seemed to have picked up on it, and for whatever reason, looked regretful.

‘’Not really, while it wasn’t as clean as you’d hope, we did knock most of them unconscious, the plan is warping them as far away from here as we can once we’re done. Don’t worry, although I don’t personally think they _deserve_ it they’ll be fine.’’

‘’And _that's _for the outfit you ruined by throwing me through that fricking wall!’’ Hilda yelled, right before a cracking noise as she finished punching the man, dusting herself off as she got up and walked towards the group.

‘’…Well mostly fine.’’

As if completely switching personalities, Hilda cheerfully hugged Flayn, glad to see her again. ‘’Gosh it’s been so long! How have you been?’’

‘’I have been doing fine, thanks to you guys.’’

‘’Come on Flayn, what did I tell you about being so formal? You’re between friends! Come on! The others are waiting at the camp.’’

Claude merely shrugged as Hilda pretty much took charge of the group, leading them towards the remains of the Cathedral, which was almost entirely intact. There, cleaning up the debris, piling up the unconscious bandits, collecting weapons and other things the bandits probably attempted to take and run, were Byleth’s students, all grown up, but still somehow looking and acting like they always did.

A part of Sothis couldn’t help but feel emotional over this. Much she feared the war would break them, that without Byleth to protect them, the children would grow jaded, would suffer the injustices of this world, left without someone to guide and help them grow.

And yet there they were, having not lost themselves in these trying times, joking, laughing and working together, their bonds as clear as day, stronger than ever. Byleth would’ve been so proud of them.

Another part of her couldn’t help but blame herself for Byleth not being there to see them. What right did she have to even be there, glad that everyone was fine?

_’’It is all wrong, Byleth should be here, not m-‘’_

Her thoughts were cut off as a hand wrapped around hers, Flayn must have realized what was going through her head, offering her a supportive smile, which she responded with a small, subtle nod.

‘’Come on.’’ She said. ‘’Let’s meet everyone.’’

/-/

The professor and the others soon joined the group, much to his classmate’s delight. Claude, on the other hand couldn’t help but feel weary, having to force himself to remain calm, but ready for anything, not that it was difficult for him, everyone was too busy or tired to notice it, and he liked to pride himself in how well he could keep appearances.

‘’Professor! It really is you! I can’t be-’’ Lysithea started to run towards her, and before he could even THINK about what he was doing, Claude grabbed her by the shoulder, almost making the girl trip. ‘’Gah! Claude!’’

‘’Be careful Ly, she was in a coma not even a month ago, remember? We don’t know if it’s okay to just tackle her.’’ He said, attempting to sound condescending, hoping everyone would chalk his slip up to him just messing with Lysithea as usual.

The girl pushed herself out of his grip, huffing as she walked towards the professor, making a show of it, with each and every step no less.

_’’Dodged suspicion but preeetty sure I’m gonna be paying for that.’’_

‘’It’s really good to see you again, Professor!’’ Lysithea said, grabbing Byleth’s hand, as everyone else closed the distance as well, each and everyone with their own welcome.

‘’I am SO glad to see you all are safe!’’ She said, eyeing each and every one of them up and down, either checking for wounds or perhaps getting used to how different they all were. ‘’I can’t believe how much every single one of you changed! I almost didn’t recognize some of you!’’

Her relief sounded so genuine, so palpable, that Claude couldn’t help but feel bad about even suspecting of her. Yet he still remained cautious. He didn’t sense any lie or oddity in the way she spoke, but then again, it was still like that back then wasn’t it? It wasn’t like her personality did a complete turn, it was just some simple, small details. Byleth was never as… Motherly, for the lack of a better word, as she was being right now, and yet none of it was faked, as far as Claude could tell, the Byleth standing in front of him HAD in fact been worried about them and WAS glad they were alright now. She even seemed more relaxed around them now, sitting with them inside the cathedral, listening to them like their mere voice was soothing to her.

‘’I loved what you did to your hair Leonie, it suits you well!’’

‘’Thanks, heh, if you think this is an improvement, you should see Lorenz!’’ The moment the words left her mouth, she instantly regretted them, as the mood suddenly got a lot heavier.

‘’I’m… Sorry guys…’’ She hissed, scratching the back of her head.

‘’What about Lorenz? Is he okay?! Did somet-‘’ Byleth almost jumped off her seat before Leonie herself put both hands on her shoulders and held her there, trying to calm her down. 

‘’Lorenz is fine Professor! He’s alive and well! It’s just…’’

Claude sighed, joining the conversation. ‘’As you know, the Alliance is split on going against the Empire or siding with them. Lorenz’s father, Count Gloucester, is firmly sided with the Empire.’’

‘’Oh…’’

‘’I tried talking to him privately and personally, even then it was a huge risk.’’ He said, finally joining them in the circle around the fire, some gasping, as that wasn’t something he’d told any of them so far. ‘’If he were totally sided with the Empire, then this entire plan would’ve been on Edelgard’s table on the next morning pretty much. I trusted Lorenz enough that he wouldn’t do that, and the fact we’re all still here proves that trust wasn’t misplaced.’’

‘’And yet he didn’t join us…’’ Ignatz said, looking conflicted.

‘’Don’t blame him, please, it’s just… His father’s influence always was something he had a hard time escaping from. I don’t think he hates us, or he betrayed us, or anything of the sort… He just is stuck in a position where there’s no easy way out.’’

‘’His father really has that much power over him, huh?’’ Hilda asked, pitying the man.

‘’I think it was pretty obvious from the get go, his weird behavior, constantly talking about nobility, about his duty, that’s all stuff his father told him was the proper way to behave. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a _lot _better now, but he still just… Can’t break free yet, I guess.’’

‘’Claude…’’ Lysithea started. ‘’You do realize that if push comes to shove… We’ll have to fight him, right?’’

He gritted his teeth, the thought had crossed his mind, obviously, it was impossible not to, but now, with the ball rolling, he couldn’t help but feel it was inevitable. ‘’We’ll cross that bridge when we have to.’’

‘’Wait, what about Marianne?’’ Ignatz asked

Claude _and _Hilda both winced, having not told the others yet.

‘’She’s… Marianne…’’

‘’She won’t be joining us either.’’ Claude sighed. ‘’Not because of her father, but by her own choice; we just got her letter yesterday.’’

‘’But… Why?’’ Leonie looked down, clearly as disappointed as they all were.

‘’She didn’t give us a reason, only apologies and wishes of good luck. If anyone would know what’s going on, it’d be Hilda, since she’s been with Marianne the most.’’

All eyes turned to her, Hilda crossed her arms, pondering on Marianne’s actions to see if there was any reason for this. ‘’I honestly can’t say. I may have a very vague idea, but at this point my guess is as good as any of yours… Just please don’t blame her, from the letter it’s clear it pained her to leave us.’’

‘’I think I speak for everyone when I say we’re more worried about her than blaming her.’’ Byleth spoke up, her eyes glancing at everyone, as they slowly raised her heads to face her. ‘’We’ll figure this out, and if push comes to shove, we still have one another.’’

‘’The professor is right!’’ Raphael said. ‘’Instead of looking all gloomy, how about we get to eating? I can’t be the only one who’s starving after all this fighting and working!’’

‘’You’re _always _starving, Raphael’’ Lysithea sighed, it was over the top and forced, but it worked to make them laugh.

Watching his friends pull themselves out of their funk and have fun, Claude couldn’t help but smile, and that’s where he noticed Byleth was staring at him, having caught his natural honest smile, instead of his usual one, nodding at him, almost as if telling him to go on and keep smiling, that no one will mock him for being happy at his friends.

_‘’We have one another huh? I’ll hold you onto that.’’_

/-/

‘’You want to _what_?’’

‘’You can’t be serious.’’

Both Claude and Shamir crossed their arms, though Claude was at least genuinely confused, Shamir just looked flat out upset with them.

‘’I just think the church would be the best place for us to mount our base.’’ Sothis repeated herself, standing her ground.’’

‘’Teach, that would literally be the first place they’d think of looking if a rebellion started!’’

‘’Not to mention this place is in ruins.’’

‘’It is not that bad, we have more than enough people to clean the debris, and the living quarters were mostly kept intact.’’ She focused on Claude, both because he looked at least open to the idea, and because Shamir’s intense stare was honestly scaring her. ‘’Think about it, the accommodations for everyone are already done, some of us have their old rooms basically intact, not to mention the weaponry, supplies and space we’d have all ready and set for us to use.’’

‘’And besides,’’ Cichol added, ‘’The Monastery’s placement is a perfect strategic point, as it allows us to have easy access to all three regions of Fódlan.’’

Claude was honestly pondering it, that was helpful, however Shamir was only more upset.

‘’It’s still far more work than necessary just for a place we don’t need anymore.’’ She turned to Claude. ‘’I’m telling you, any other base would do just as well and we’d need no work, plus while there is a lot of space, that also means we’ll have to spread our guard thin to keep watch over everything.’’ THAT made Claude cringe, and Sothis’ heart sunk, as she realized they were losing him.

‘’Shamir, why are you so against this?’’ Cichol went straight for the main issue, Sothis almost told him to stop, afraid of the woman’s fierce glare, but Cichol stood his ground.

‘’Even before we started properly explaining our case, you seemed completely against it.’’

The woman sighed. ‘’I just don’t want us to repeat the same mistake as Catherine.’’

Cichol looked down, finally understanding her reasoning.

‘’Catherine threw away everything for a chance not just at revenge, but at trying to make things as they were before, the Knights, the Church, everything. Her insistence on the past, refusing to get over that we failed, is what led me to leave and join Claude.’’ She pinched the bridge of her nose. ‘’I’m not saying what we’re doing is the same, Claude knows better than to blindly attacking the empire and declaring war against an army we have no hope of beating, but considering who you three are, I can’t help but feel you asking us to make the church as our base is the same. Just desperately trying to rebuild what’s been lost. I can’t do that, Seteth I am sorry, I can’t just attach myself and die for this place.’’

Sothis could understand her very well, one of her issues with the current state of the world once she first woke up was exactly that, people worshipping her to an unhealthy degree, throwing their lives away for a mere image of her, a very innacurate one no less. She even recalls Catherine's words when she was training before the invasion, how the hot blooded knight was clearly fully believing whatever Seiros told her. Shamir would be especially spiteful by the Church of Seiros' influence given what had happened to Catherine.

Claude placed a hand on her shoulder. ‘’No one is telling you to do that. I know what happened to Catherine is still…’’ He sighed, ‘’Very well, she’s not the only one hiding her reasons, you three have been trying to sell this idea but it’s clear there’s more to it, so on with it.’’

Sothis and her family glanced at each other, nervously.

‘’Do you recall how Edelgard’s army included some pretty powerful mages? Using spells we haven’t really seen thrown around so candidly?’’

‘’Recall? I felt those spells, teach, not to mention those demonic beasts, Solon, Kronya and all the other weird things going on in Edelgard’s army.’’

‘’Indeed, well, this Monastery a long time ago, was blessed by the Goddess herself, so it has been made to withstand most kinds of dark magic, as a safe haven for those who worshipped her.'' She made her best not to wince at having to continue perpetuating the image the church had set for her. "Why do you think the Cathedral and most of the place remain intact? The only destruction was whatever the army physically broke.’’

‘’Or those white beasts.’’

‘’Or those white beasts.’’ It was hard to hide her wince.

‘’So this place has been blessed by the Goddess, and staying here will give us an advantage over Edelgard’s army? Yeah that does make sense, one would think with everything they had, those guys could’ve caused way more destruction. Problem is, what you’re telling me isn’t that easy to confirm, could’ve just been luck that the Cathedral and everything else still stands.’’

Sothis broke eye contact, they really had no means of proving that, not without an attack anyways, which was the last thing they'd want at that moment

‘’How do you even know all that? I never took you for well versed in Church lore, much less something that's far from common knowledge.‘’

She almost stammered, doing her best to keep a straight face, which was somewhat helped by Byleth's usual expression. ‘’T-The revelation.‘’

‘’...The revelation?‘’

‘’I do not... Exactly remember everything that I saw during it, but... I do recall some flashes of information bestowed by the goddess herself, that being one of them.‘’

Claude looked less than convinced. Sighing, he turned his sight to Flayn, and Sothis almost feared he’d try to interrogate her.

‘’Flayn, what do you think about all of this?’’

She smiled, glad that Claude seemed to trust her that much, ‘’I believe her, and I trust this decision.’’ She responded, confirming what he wanted to know.

‘’Very well then, we’ll stay here, I’ll tell everyone they can start unpacking. However things will get a bit rough for now, as Shamir said we don’t exactly have enough soldiers to keep watch on everything.’’

‘’We will work something out, I know we will.’’

‘’Well I sure hope we do.’’ Claude sighed, motioning Shamir to go tell the troops the news.

‘’Alright, but we are _only _fixing what is necessary, don’t expect us to reconstruct the Cathedral windows or statues.’’ Shamir grunted.

‘’I wouldn’t want you to waste your manpower on something so unnecessary. Trust me, I do not care for the shape of this place or WHAT this place is or was, all I want is somewhere secure where we can act. Be it a church or a wooden cabin.’’

Shamir seemed a bit surprised, but recovered quick, nodding and walking away.

Claude then turned to Cichol.

‘’Speaking of guards, I had the scouts secure the area you’ve told me to, I have two guards ready to go with you there anytime you want.’’

‘’Ah, thank you, Professor, are you free right now?’’

‘’Wait, for what? Where are we going?’’

‘’We are getting the Sword of the Creator back.’’

/-/

The walk into the forest was mostly quiet and uneventful, Cichol merely keeping an eye on the place, staring not at the endless trees surrounding them, but up, above them, at the edges of the monastery.

‘’What are you looking for exactly?’’

‘’I can’t rely on recognizing trees or forest landmarks, especially after five years of this place being scouted, so I’m going by where you were thrown.’’

‘’Ah.’’ She said, wincing as she touched her side, the phantom pain still there. ‘’

‘’How did I even lose it here? Are you sure the Empire scouts didn’t collect it already?’’

‘’After securing your body I had my Wyvern dig a hole and bury it. In this dense forest it’d be impossible to discern it, much less dig it without extra tools, which no one would bring unless they knew something was there. Besides, I did make myself noticed soon afterwards, so they were pretty busy.’’

‘’Looks like you thought of everything.’’ She chuckled.

‘’Countless close calls teach you a thing or two about spur of the moment thinking.’’

She couldn’t help but think about those words. How many times had her son been through close calls like that? Holding a dying loved one in his arms, almost dying just to escape a place, forcing himself to hide while constantly worrying about everyone else.  
Just how much was she unable to protect her son from?

‘’It’s here.’’

Looking up, she saw the cliff, it looked no different to her, except for a small lance stabbed at the top, most likely Cichol himself planted it there as a landmark.

‘’So this is where I fell?’’ She looked around the area, it as a small shore close to the river that flowed next to the Monastery.

‘’Yes, however by the time I found you, your wyvern had already dragged you out of the water and into the forest, around… Here.’’ He said, walking between a few trees.

‘’Remind me of giving Seth a treat once he’s brought here.’’

‘’I’ll remind you to change his name.’’

Walking towards him, she saw a patch of grass, not unlike the rest, however, the ground under it stood a bit taller compared to everywhere else, almost like a bulge on an otherwise plain ground. It wasn’t easy to notice, but once they knew what they were looking for, it was obvious.

‘’Well, I brought some shovels, so l-‘’

‘’I want to try something, if you don’t mind.’’

Nodding, he merely motioned for her to go on, as she kneeled in front of the patch of dirt, touching it. Closing her eyes, she looked for it, a small familiar sensation, pushing her hand deeper into the dirt, diging her nails into it, searching harder, harder, until a familiar feeling returned.

Her heart ached, as if synchronizing with what laid under the grass, the sensation of something begging for her power, desperately needing it like a starving animal, clinging to what little power she was able to pass through. She fed it, not blocking it, not trying to stop it, merely accepting the wish and fulfilling it as best as she could. She could feel it building up, more and more.

It felt like an eternity, as if an entire river were flowing through a small drain, but flowing regardless.

‘’What are you d-‘’

‘’By the way you should probably duck.’’

‘’Wh-AGH!’’

That was the only warning he received before the ground exploded, the grass and dirt flying everywhere, some hitting Cichol’s face dead on, as Sothis kept her eyes focused on the hole that just erupted from the floor, focused on the shining form slowly becoming clearer as the dust settled down.

The Sword of the Creator, in it’s chain form, glowing from the power she fed.

Grabbing it, she stared at the sword for a bit.

Somehow, she felt a lot more comfortable and safe with it back. This cold sword meant nothing but failure to her, and yet, it was still Byleth’s main weapon, it was how she had saved the students and more, how she saved and defended herself countless times. It was thanks to this sword Byleth was able to go as far as she did, and she’d have gone even further had it not been for the ritual, no doubt.

It was one of Byleth’s most treasured items, the very symbol of the connection the two once shared. She couldn’t help herself but embrace it, almost hoping to hear Byleth’s voice, her spirit, anything.

But there was no response, unsurprisingly, the weapon remained cold and lifeless. Instead, she got up, placing the sword on her belt, a small act, yet it brought her confidence, as long as she had that sword, she still had a connection to Byleth, just like she had to Sothis, and she’d use that sword to finish what Byleth started.

‘’Ready to go back?’’ Cichol said, cleaning himself up, but still smiling at her, no doubt able to tell how important this was for her.

She stared at the monastery, the place where she failed once, the place where everything had gone wrong.

And now, the place where she’d continue the fight.

She took a deep breath, thinking about everything that has yet to be done, all the dangers she should expect, and most of all, the people she needs to protect; and with a firm smile, gave her answer.

‘’I am ready.’’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't even say ''I'M ALIVE'' again I feel like I'd be repeating myself lmao  
Jokes aside, so here we are, the timeskip is properly starting now, next chapter we'll enter familiar territory, albeit with a few twists, of course, and hopefully regain some much needed momentum as we approach the halfway mark of the fic.
> 
> As for a fun little tidbit, Flayn's development was completely different originally, I intended for her to find out about Sothis before the timeskip, and leaving with the Golden Deer because of the fallout with Seteth and Sothis, only starting to mellow out much later. Why didn't I go with that?   
I literally forgot about the scene of her finding out. Oops.  
I only remembered it AFTER the siege, and during it there was no good point to make such scene work, so I had to compromise, and I feel like it's much better this way, not only because it'd be quite uncharacteristic of Flayn but also because there's no way she wouldn't tell the class about Sothis during those five years.
> 
> As it is now, Flayn while she doesn't HATE Sothis, she's still going to take some time to change her mind on her, while trying her best to help, conflicted between her own notions of what happened to Byleth and what she found out about Sothis.
> 
> Well that's it for now, my tests are starting this week and will go until the next one so I'd say work on the next chapter will start at the end of the month, and it'll be a meaty one, since it's the start of another battle.
> 
> Thanks for reading, and stay safe!


	12. Guilt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With their first real battle rearing its ugly head, Sothis desperately hopes to redeem herself from her previous mistakes.

‘’Are you sure about this?’’

‘’Trust me, I have been working with her long enough to know she would have left something.’’

‘’I understand that, however this seems rather… Wrong.’’

Cichol cringed, far from pretending he was comfortable with what they were about to do. Sothis had followed him through the halls of the main tower, making their way to a room all too familiar to her; Seiros’ room, the one where she woke up after the Holy Tomb Ritual.

Placing a hand on the doorknob, her child took a deep breath. ‘’Do not get me wrong, I hate this, and I wish I did not have to do such despicable act as rummaging through her room, however in our current situation, we cannot ignore the possibility of her leaving us something to use.’’

With a silent apology, he opened the door, still facing her, as he continued speaking. ‘’If there isn’t anything here, I will fully bear the responsibility of all this, however, if there _is _in fact something, then us doing this would be what she would have want-‘’

His jaw dropped before he could finish it, Sothis sharing the sentiment, once she saw Seiros’ room. The doors and cabinets were all opened, several pieces of furniture on the floor or turned upside down, and Claude, caught on the act of lifting the mattress on Seiros’ bed, also suffering from a dropped jaw.

He recovered pretty quick, dropping the mattress, throwing his hands up in a surrendering motion and attempting the worst excuse for a smile she’s ever seen from him. ‘’I swear everything was like this when I got here.’’

‘’MR. RIEGAN!’’

‘’Hilda did it?’’ He tried

‘’What the _hell _were you doing here?’’

He sighed, passing his hand through his hair, ‘’I figured Rhea could’ve left us something, maybe instructions, secrets, anything that could help us right now.’’

‘’So you decided to just rummage through her belongings?’’

‘’It’s not as if she’d just leave a giant sign pointing at whatever she’d be hiding.’’

‘’That is still very wrong of your part, Claude.’’

‘’Well, what were you two going to do here then?’’

Sothis and her child shared a glance, Cichol’s hand soon pinching the bridge of his nose as she sighed in defeat. ‘’We… May have had a similar idea.’’

Claude’s smile grew to ridiculous levels of smugness. ‘’So, are you two just gonna look or do you plan on helping me? This mattress is surprisingly heavy.’’

Making their way towards Claude, with Cichol grumbling something about disrespectful youths, they helped Claude lifting it, carefully looking for anything inside or under the thing, disappointingly enough, with no result. 

‘’Keep holding it.’’ Claude said, releasing the mattress, forcing them to adjust to the extra weight, and inspecting the floor underneath it, tapping with his hand.

‘’What are you looking for?’’ Sothis asked, trying to get a good look at whatever he was doing.

‘’This bed is bolted into the floor, meaning it’s blocking anything underneath it from being seen or accessed easily. I thought it could be the bed itself, but the mattress, pillows and sheets can be easily taken, so can anything that looks valuable here.’’

‘’I see…’’ Cichol nodded. ‘’She would not leave anything important hidden on something that looks valuable or easy to steal, in case of anyone ransacking the place.’’

‘’I also avoided anything made out of wood that’s easy to pick up, even if there’s not much value, it could be used by bandits for fire. So we need to look a bit deeper… There!

You two move a bit to the side, let some light get in there!’’

Following his instructions, they allowed the rays of light coming from the window next to the bed to illuminate the section Claude was inspecting, allowing the three to notice a certain plank that was different from the others, not easily noticeable, simply a lighter color and different patterns. And yet it proved the correct choice when Claude pulled a small dagger and ripped the plank free, there was a small envelope glued to its back.

Removing it carefully from the plank, he offered it to Sothis, who quickly grabbed it, her heart aching at the prospect of having to read a message from her daughter, worse, one that would have been preparing for the worst possible scenario.

‘’Want me to read it?’’ Cichol offered, Claude raising a small eyebrow at the offer but shrugging it off. Sothis nodded handing him the letter.

Unfolding the paper inside the envelope, Cichol gave it a quick glance, Claude quickly sidestepping behind him to read it himself.

‘’To anyone who may have found this, please deliver this letter to Professor Byleth Eisner.’’ Cichol started, Claude nodding accordingly to what was being read. ‘’I have little time, so I will keep this brief.’’

She tried to remain calm, however she could tell from the words that Seiros, as much as she wished to pour her heart into this letter, to tell her mother everything she was feeling at the time, couldn’t because of the possibility of anyone beside her reading it. It was why Cichol did not protest at Claude being there to read it, not only would it raise suspicion, but they knew Seiros well enough to trust her not to leave such revealing information, especially relating to her mother. Seiros would take the truth to the grave with her, for better or for worse.

‘’If you are reading this, then it means something happened to me, maybe fate has finally caught up to my sins. Professor, if you found this letter on your own, I would assume it is because you have decided to burden yourself with everything I had left unfinished. I cannot physically help you anymore, however I still wish to make myself useful, that is why I ask you to go to the Holy Tomb, look for what I left you there. However please do be careful, for I have left a trap to prevent thieves from reaching it. You will know when you see it, and I hope it can help you should you decide to go forward with taking care of things.’’

Cichol sighed.

‘’I apologize for the way things have ended and I wish you good luck in whatever your goal is. If you wish to continue the fight, then may the power of the Progenitor God protect you. If you wish to merely live in peace and avoid further conflict… Then I am sorry for not being able to offer you much outside of wishing you a good life.  
Stay safe and please survive.  
~Rhea’’

Sothis remained quiet for a few moments, Claude thankfully not noticing it, being too busy processing the information.

Seiros really had accepted that her own mother hated her, hadn’t she? She fully expected Sothis would leave everything behind if she ever died, that she’d move on and merely try to forget her, never forgiving what she had done.

Did she hate Seiros? Did she have the _right_ to forgive her? To pretend like what she did could be easily forgiven?

Her thoughts were thankfully cut off by a soldier entering the room in a rush.

‘’Lord Riegan, Sir!’’

If Claude had any shame in being seem rummaging through the Archbishop’s quarters, he hid it pretty well, switching to his serious face as soon as he saw the soldier. ‘’At ease, please, what’s this rush all about?’’

‘’Empire troops! They’re approaching the area!’’

‘’What?!’’ She gasped, her thoughts becoming even more of a mess with the panic of an attack added to what was already there. ‘’Did Edelgard find us already?’’

‘’That was something we saw coming, remember, we decided to make this our base after all, at some point scouts would find us anyways.’’ Claude said, walking towards the soldier. ‘’Prepare the troops, we’ll follow the strategy I had set.’’

‘’Their numbers are surprisingly high sir!’’

‘’Edelgard must have stationed a small group close by along with the scouts, just in case they found something.’’ Claude mused. ‘’Got to give it to her, she is one clever lady, instead of merely destroying the Church, she left it as bait for anyone who tried to start anything using it.’’ 

And they fell for it because of her choice, Sothis thought. They didn’t have many soldiers, winning this fight wasn’t impossible, but it would leave them with barely anything, worse, they had already set everything up on the monastery, leaving now would take too much time, even if they won, another group may soon come, their rebellion would end before it even started, because she choose to make them stay in a place that not only they had no hope to defend but would also paint a clear easy to find target on all of them. She had already messed up before she even started fighting back, a mistake that risked the very foundation of their rebellion. She could fight, but she still wasn't Byleth, which meant against an army, she would barely make a difference, there was no way she could get them out of this safely, much less with her current skills.

Could she undo that mistake?

‘’We need to get to the Holy Tomb, get whatever Rhea left us.’’ She said, ignoring Claude’s confused look. ‘’It is our only chance.’’

‘’Teach, with all due respect, I don’t think we can diverge troops there, much less leave the monastery open.’’ He turned back to the soldier. ‘’Get to your station, find Shamir and ask her to meet up with me at the entrance of the monastery.’’

‘’Then I’ll go!’’ She said. ‘’Me, Seteth and Flayn should be enough, you and the others can focus on the attack and I shall back you up when I find whatever Rhea was talking about.’’

Claude winced, it was clear she was putting him on a though spot, she hated it, she really did, and in a sense it was all her fault, but she hoped she could fix it somehow, that she could at least make _something _right.

‘’Alright, but I can’t let you three go.’’ Claude said, raising one finger. ‘’Seteth stays with us, we need as many people out there fighting as we can get. You and Flayn can go, since you will be more than enough to deal with whatever trap Rhea left there and Flayn can teleport you out of the Tomb after you two get whatever is down there.’’

‘’Very well.’’ She didn’t even think before agreeing, taking the offer as soon as it was given. Claude’s wince only seemed to grow, although she couldn’t tell why.

‘’I will go pick up Flayn and make my way to the Tomb, you two stay safe out there, I will meet you soon.’’

‘’Please be careful.’’ Cichol said.

‘’Yeah, if things seem unwinnable, get back up’’

‘’I will, trust me.’’

/-/

After teach left, Claude made to leave, Seteth quickly following, the rushed steps offering some distraction to the thoughts clouding his mind. Claude hated this, to be unable to trust his teacher, to have to suspect of her every move, to have to basically hold Seteth hostage under a flimsy excuse to make sure they don’t escape or try anything that could harm his group.

Seteth no doubt figured it out, and yet still went with it, that made him feel awful, but the fact his teacher clearly hadn’t realized it felt even worse. He tricked her, when she just wanted to help, it was clear as day she blamed herself for the attack, it was her idea to have everyone station here, and while her reasons, although unproven, could be valid, it still didn’t change their current situation.

Once outside, he found Shamir already waiting, thankfully forcing him to push those thoughts away to focus, and allowing himself to get busy with plans and strategies. 

‘’They’re coming from the front, similar to Edelgard’s attack, they don’t seem to have a large enough army for a pincer however.’’ Shamir explained, following him as they made their way to where the soldiers were stationed. ‘’Their plan is clearly to overwhelm us with their sheer numbers, or at least weaken us enough. No fliers, no demonic beasts, this is quite literally a hammer to flatten any attempts at rebellion as quick as possible.’’

He placed his hand on his chin, pondering. ‘’Their numbers are about the same as ours, which means it can go either way. They want a war of attrition, and we don’t have much of a choice but to play by their rules.’’

‘’The trap you had set up at the entrance is ready.’’

‘’I’d like if they didn’t _make it_ to the entrance though.’’

He sighed, placing both hands on his waist, as he watched his soldiers preparing. ‘’Shamir, I want you to take a small team, three to five soldiers, and scout the Monastery as we fight.’’

‘’Excuse me?’’ The idea clearly annoyed her, he was basically leaving her out of a pretty decisive fight. ‘’Claude we can’t afford to-‘’

‘’There are secret entrances all over this place, I don’t want to risk a group of enemy soldiers finding one of those and stabbing us in the back while we’re busy with the frontal attack.’’

She gritted her teeth, realizing the very real threat of that happening, it’d be enough to destabilize them and end the war before it even starts.

‘’Seteth, can you inform her of any possible entrances or exits that would be easy to exploit by the enemy? I’d send you there yourself, but Shamir is better at scouting and stealth.’’

Another lie, he just didn’t want Seteth out of his view, and he knew this mistrust of his was costly, Shamir would have a harder time locating the secret routes, and it could mean the end for them.

‘’Very well.’’ Seteth said, already turning to Shamir, a soldier quickly handing them a map of the monastery at Claude’s request. Getting a move on, Claude made his way to his classmates who were all already coordinating their battalions and preparing their stations.

‘’Well, what do you know, you guys can be organized when push comes to shove.’’

‘’Someone has to keep things orderly given our leader is a fan of making a mess of things.’’ Leonie said, throwing him a belt with a few potions, he checked them and memorized for quick access. ‘’So what’s the plan?’’

‘’We can’t let them enter the monastery, we’ll risk the supplies if we do, so our last line of defense should be there.’’ He pointed at the stairs right in front of the main entrance, between the market and the front gates — what was left of them anyways— ‘’So we’ll be meeting them at the gates, however, should push come to shove, fall back to the ruins before the market, where the buildings and houses once stood.’’

‘’Why there?’’

‘’Oh you know, always good to have a small trick left just in case.’’

Lysithea narrowed her eyes. ‘’What did you plan?’’

‘’Let’s just say tonight we will be igniting the flames of rebellion.’’

He couldn’t help but grin as half his classmates groaned. ‘’I swear,’’ Lysithea started, ‘’I am almost considering throwing myself at the enemy army now to spare the pain of having to keep dealing with you for the rest of this war.’’

With the mood a bit lighter, Claude got back to his business talk. ‘’Speaking of which, Lysithea, do you think you can handle two battalions?’’

‘’Well I am used to multitasking, but why?’’

He pulled her aside, leaving the others to continue their work. ‘’I had a battalion handpicked for Marianne, specialized healers.’’ She winced hard. ‘’After what happened, I was thinking of having Flayn lead them, but she isn’t available.’’

‘’Did something happen?’’

‘’We found a letter from the Archbishop, apparently she left some sort of weapon behind for us to use, teach insisted in going down on the Holy Tomb to get it as soon as possible, Flayn tailing her to teleport her back.’’

‘’I see.’’ She glanced at the others. ‘’Did you not inform them?’’ 

‘’I am hoping it will be quick enough that they won’t miss her, they don’t need another thing to worry during all this. If anyone asks, she’s on the frontlines.’’

‘’You’re playing a dangerous game here, Claude.’’

‘’It’s not a game, it’s a gamble, and trust me, I know.’’

She couldn’t help but stare at him, her expression worried, about this entire situation, about their friends, about him for taking so many risks. Claude walked away, giving some excuse about needing to check the enemy’s position, as he couldn’t handle that right now. Following a small group of soldiers, he could see them, the small army slowly forming in the distance, their path making a lot of movement and noise in the forest, making them easy to spot.

Not that spotting would do much here.

‘’ I want archers behind the ruins of the gates, don’t waste arrows on the armored ones, we don’t have the advantage to overwhelm them, we need to be precise and careful here, only take the shot if you know you’ll hit them.’’ The soldier nodded, making a mental note of his orders. ‘’On the ground, have all armored troops you can get, I want to make sure IF they break through, their numbers will be already dwindling. All mages are to remain on the village ruins, the trap is set so we need them there to spring it.’’

Turning around he started pointing at the buildings around the entrance. ‘’I want healers inside the remains of the buildings, they will provide support from a distance and retreat when necessary, heal and run.’’ Finally, he pointed directly at the stairs at the end of the market, leading into the monastery. ‘’That’s our last line of defense, I want cavalry, mages, foot soldiers, anyone that’s left who can still fight is to be there. Their job is to either force them back to the trap on the ruins or take them out.’’

‘’Sir, what about you?’’

He sighed. ‘’I’ll be on the front gates with the snipers.’’ Claude didn’t fail to notice the worried looks of the group. ’’I’ll be able to coordinate everyone better from there.’’ That didn’t seem to calm them much but at least made it clear he had a plan. ‘’Well? Get to it.’’

The soldiers scrambled as he walked back to his friends, who were already wishing each other good luck and moving to their positions.

‘’Ah, there he is!’’ Hilda said. ‘’Claude, we’re ready to go.’’

He forced himself to smile. ‘’Can’t wait to get the show back on the road?’’

‘’This time we are sure to win.’’ Ignatz said, his bow ready, Claude couldn’t help but feel his smile grow at how much more confident his friend was. Those five years sure helped him, he just wished it’d be under better circumstances.

‘’Very well, good luck everyone, I’ll see you all on the other side then.’’

‘’By the way, where is the professor? I wanted to wish her good luck but I couldn’t find her.’’  
Claude was thankful he had already turned around, because he couldn’t hide his wince. He could also FEEL Lysithea’s stare burning a hole at the back of his head.

‘’Oh she’s already at the frontlines, wanted to be there just in case the troops tried to spring anything. I’ll tell her you guys wished her luck, don’t worry.’’

Thankfully, Seteth showed up to pull him aside, with a small group of soldiers of his own, one of them handing Claude something neatly folded into several sheets, which he carefully picked up — along with a quiver that he placed on his back and a sword he placed on his belt— to make some final planning. 

‘’Shamir is already on her way to scout the passageways, I myself plan on staying on the frontlines with you, if there is no problem.’’

‘’None, I welcome it, actually, this way we both can get a good idea of what’s going on and plan ahead.’’

The older man groaned. ‘’I wish I had my wyvern with me, that would make it much more easy.’’

‘’Tell me about it.’’ Claude grinned, making small chat as they made it to their positions. ‘’I even spent these five years training with mine, now I won’t even get to show off my new skills for a while.’’

‘’I do recall you were the one who taught Cyril the basics, correct? He was already pretty advanced on it when I started training him’’

‘’I learned at a very young age, plus I had been living around wyverns since I was born, so I guess you could say I’m a prodigy when it comes to them in general.’’

‘’Fascinating, is it an Almyran ritual?’’

‘’More or less, every member of the royal family is gifted a wyvern egg at birth, we’re supposed to grow up together and train together, so from the start your wyvern is your best friend and your most trusted ally. Most just keep them as pets or method of transportation honestly, since obviously not everyone is going to the frontlines. However that does mean we develop quite a strong bond with them.’’

‘’I understand the feeling. I had mine since it was a small hatchling as well, we have been through many things together, to the point where I’d trust it with my life, as I am sure you have seen when you found me.’’

Claude cringed ‘’Sure did, hopefully it won’t ever come to _that_ again.’’

‘’Well, I guess we have another reason to pull through then. We cannot just form such bond with our rides and then die on them like this.’’

Chuckling, Claude started to unpack the sheets, revealing his family’s weapon, Failnaught, the bow made of mysterious enchanted stone, the crest stone lodged in it almost calling him. He couldn’t help but feel a chill down his spine as he picked it up, testing its weight, balance and angles for shooting.

A few years ago he’d be excited for it, the Alliance leader recalled telling his professor how much he wished he could get his hands on a Hero’s Relic, how much he wanted to harness their power, and how helpful they’d be in his goals. It only got worse when Byleth got the Sword of the Creator, he was awestruck at it’s power and how all legends were seemingly true.

But now, feeling the weapon almost demanding the power that flowed through his blood, as he prepared to use it to take lives, to fight in a battle that would decide the destiny of his friends and everything he held dear; Claude couldn’t help but notice how heavy it was.

‘’Claude?’’

He ignored Seteth, climbing the ruins of the gates, it wasn’t too tall, but it gave him an advantage as a sniper, Seteth in response got in position as well, accepting the time for chitchat was over. Placing one of the arrows on the bow, he could feel his power flowing into the bow, channeled straight into the arrow, as it crackled with lightning, the bow itself resonating with a faint glow. Taking aim, he prepared, seeing the enemy army approaching. No questions asked, no warnings, no telling them to disband and give up; Edelgard’s scouts were there to eliminate any targets that could be dangerous for her, and that’s what they were about to do.

‘’I’m counting on you teach.’’

/-/

The elevator’s gears were the only noise breaking the silence as they went down, the light of the surface slowly fading, being replaced with the green ethereal light from the underground mausoleum. Sothis’ hands were balled into fists, as she tried to keep her breath steady; Flayn was tense as well, avoiding her glances and trying to focus on the ground that was slowly closing in.

They both knew why they were in such state, even ignoring the fact the fate of everyone in the surface right now depended on their success, there was something more, something that kept creeping up on their thoughts.

This was where it all started.

This tomb, this cursed room was where Byleth’s spirit had vanished, where Seiros’ ritual had happened and Sothis was forced back to life in a body she never asked for.

She could feel her throat dry as the machine finally stopped, it’s doors open, revealing the underground structure, covered in a green tint from the lights, giant stone coffins lining the entire place, carefully spaced and engraved with Nabatean symbols. Some were still open from when Edelgard struck, attempting to steal the crest stones — In reality the remains of the Nabateans resting here, something she clearly wasn’t aware of— as Seiros seemingly had no time to do much for the place beyond set up whatever she hid there and activate her trap.

It was understandable, as much as she felt a bit saddened by the state of the resting place of her children, Seiros had other things to attend, more important things, with Edelgard’s war looming in, she needed to take care of the living before the dead.

Her eyes closed in on the other side of the room, where a beautiful, familiar stone throne stood, her vision tunneled, as she couldn’t look away, a mixture of emotions exploding inside of her. That throne meant so much for her, it in a way represented almost everything that had gone wrong with her life. It was where she went to rest, where she was murdered, and where she was reborn.

That throne reminded her of the wars she was forced to witness, of the wasteland that remained of Fódlan once the war had ended, of how much of her power it took to heal it back to its prime; of how she had to rest after using up every single drop of her powers in an effort to bring her beloved continent back, and how she went to sleep, unsure she would even wake up in time to see her children alive again, if she wouldn’t just sleep their entire lifetimes away.

It reminded her of what happened next, of how her last memories were a foggy sensation of pain, a barely conscious mind that was aware enough to understand it was in pain, to understand it was bleeding out and dying thanks to the cruelty of one man, who stood before her with a sickening smile on his face, not even waiting for her to pass on before he started harvesting her remains.

And finally, the slowly sinking awareness that she was in control of a body where once she was merely a passenger, the silence in the mind that once didn’t belong to her, a mind plagued with thoughts and emotions she didn’t understand and merely witnessed from the outside; the solitude of a body no longer being shared by her and its rightful owner, instead being completely taken over by her.

It all flooded back, the terrifying experience it was, the confusion, the fear, the horror, how she was suddenly forced to pretend to be someone she wasn’t, and lie in the face of their loved ones, how she lashed out towards her own daughter, the daughter which to this day Sothis wasn’t sure if she had forgiven for what Seiros did to her only friend.

‘’We need to keep going.’’ Flayn said, her expression showing she herself was having mixed feelings over the place, if anything, giving Sothis some solace in that she wasn’t alone.

They walked down the stairs at the entrance, sword and staff at hand, already prepared for whatever came their way. She noticed several statues of differing sizes were around the place, some wearing armor, others merely stone and steel, it was as if they were guarding the mausoleum, or merely ceremonial.

Her blood froze when one of the statues turned its head to meet her gaze, its empty eyes suddenly glowing red.

‘’Cethleann get down!’’ She yelled, jumping on her granddaughter, her weight forcing her to give in and collapse on the floor, narrowly dodging a giant spear made of lightning thrown their way, which exploded into crackling energy on the wall right behind them.

‘’What are those things?!’’

She looked back, realizing all statues, big and small had come to life, the big ones barely moving, however producing the lightning spears from their hands, while the small ones, looking like normal soldiers, started giving chase.

‘’They are machines, powered by my magic.’’ She grabbed the sword of the creator and slashed at the incoming soldiers, which didn’t spray blood or guts, but merely threw them back, scratching their armor and metal. ‘’The technology I provided had many uses, one of them was to create automatons like these, puppets made of metal that have no mind of their own and merely function as an extension of their owner’s will. I thought this kind of technology had been lost after my passing, but it seems Seiros managed to salvage a few of them.’’

‘’That is a bit more than a ‘’few’’, Sothis!’’ Cetheleann gasped, pointing at several doors forming from the walls, from which more soldiers came, while more of the giant ones started dropping from the ceiling.

‘’Seiros always was one for overkill.’’ She sighed, dragging Flayn behind a pillar, as several spears struck, but the structure didn’t budge. ‘’Thankfully, as I said before, the Holy Tomb is well protected from those who weaponize my magic.’’

Made sense as well, Seiros would want the place protected, but not destroyed by the fighting, thus having it be protected by beings who literally cannot produce collateral damage seemed like a brilliant idea.

Of course, it didn’t seem brilliant when they were on the other end of the lightning spears.

‘’What do we do now?’’ Cethleann said, ducking away from the sparks of the spears.

‘’Everyone on the surface is counting on our victory. There is no point in beating all of these.’’ She got out of cover, quickly dodging another spear, ignoring her granddaughter’s shouts, and with a precise attack, used the sword’s chain to launch the point straight into one of the giant automatons’ face, pulling it and ripping its head off.

It was then followed by another one dropping from the ceiling, replacing the one lost but nothing more than that.

She jumped behind another pillar, right next to the one Cethleann remained on. ‘’It seems like Seiros set some sort of maximum number that can be active in any given time.’’

She peeked outside, seeing how they were all coming from the walls right next to the throne. ‘’They’re protecting the throne, if there is something in here, it is around there.’’

‘’Meaning we can merely bait them away from the throne and teleport our way there. This place is big enough that even at a full sprint they will take a while to reach us.''

Sothis grinned, giving her granddaughter a thumbs up. ‘’I will get their attention then.’’ Cethleann made to argument, but she continued. ‘’I am the most agile of the two of us, plus I can push them back with both magic and the sword, while fighting off anyone who gets too close. Besides, we cannot have you wasting your power if we expect to use your teleporting spell twice in a row.’’ Flayn expressed her displeasure but didn’t disagree.

‘’Please be careful then, we both need to make it out of here.’’

As she left her cover, wide open for an attack —which soon came in the form of a lightning spear— Sothis couldn’t help but smile at her granddaughter’s palpable worry. 

The sword created in that very tomb now glowed, washing away the sickening green tint with the radiant red generated from its aura, her very resolve turned into power.

‘’Do not fret. I do not plan on dying here again.’’

Her slash divided the spear launched her way, it’s halves exploding on both of her sides, as she stood still, challenging the machines.

/-/

Her scouts were spread thin, it wasn’t something she could really complain about, it was merely a result of the size of the place compared to the size of Claude’s army. He had invested so much manpower in his original plan that until it came to fruition, he’d be severely underprepared for a fight, even one as small as this.

Running through the halls, her group followed the map Seteth had marked for them, every secret entrance they located being sealed up, either using the rubble or whatever piece of decoration they could find, their plan was to plug any hole in their defenses until they had a way to actually _guard _those in the heat of a fight.

She didn’t blame Claude for taking action when he did, it was as clear as day he was reluctant to do so and knew how much of a stupid move it was, but not doing anything meant risking his friends’ lives, as he knew they would do something with or without him.

Her hands balled into fists, as she once again remembered her argument with Catherine. Not for the first time she thought about how things would’ve been if she had resisted more, if she had tried convincing Catherine to leave with her, instead of merely abandoning her not wanting anything to do with the church anymore.

Would her partner still be alive? Would she be dead along with her? Would they both figure a compromise, a better way to solve all of this? None of it even mattered anymore, and yet the thoughts plagued her on and on for the last few years, ever since she found out Catherine had gone and gotten herself killed, desperately fighting with the remains of the Knights of Seiros.

All of that because of her insane devotion to this cult, throwing her life away for what? For an Archbishop they weren’t even sure was even alive anymore? To honor a religion that ensured nothing would ever change? For the pride of a monastery that has no life of its own to begin with?

And what she hated the most was that right now she was fighting to defend this very monastery, right now, out there, people she considered friends and comrades were fighting and dying to keep this place alive, this place that had brought nothing but pain to her, that had implanted a fanaticism upon her partner and led her towards her own pointless death on a pointless conflict.

Shamir honestly believed she had finally gotten over it all, focusing on her new mission, rejecting the notion of reviving the Church, merely thinking of her next move and nothing else, however being forced to stay in the monastery, forced to defend it, brought back all sorts of memories and feelings she thought she had finally rid herself of.

She wanted nothing more for the Empire to destroy this place, to see it wiped from the map, and yet there she was, making sure Garreg Mach would still be standing by the end of the day.

_‘’I’m not fighting for this place, I’m fighting for these people.’’_

A choking sound snapped her back to reality, as her group turned to find one of theirs being held by an Empire soldier, a knife stabbed into his neck, blood already covering his body, that quickly limped as the soldier dropped him, his final twitches as his life faded being thoroughly ignored as the enemy walked past him.

Behind him several other soldiers slowly revealed themselves, all armed to the teeth and ready to fight.

‘’I see you scum thought of everything, even of sealing all of the secret passageways.’’ He cleaned the blood off his knife as if killing that man was merely an inconvenience to him, carefully putting it back on his belt before grabbing his sword. ‘’However, we had already gotten through that one before you could seal it off. Ten seconds more and we wouldn’t have made it, lucky us.’’

Their odds were awful, in total she had four soldiers now, while the ones that got through were at least fifteen. Worse, in the narrow hallway they would barely have any room to properly maneuver, much less get some distance to use her bow.

‘’Kill all of them, and don’t forget to take their map, the more passageways we can find the better, that way we can swarm the place and strike their army from the back.

‘’Everyone get ready, we _cannot_ fall here.’’ Shamir yelled, more to herself than anyone else, as she readied her bow and arrow. ‘’Take them all down!’’

/-/

They were being pushed back, he knew and planned for it, and yet it was still a tense realization. Claude ordered his men to fall back, allowing the through the gates, his relic doing what it could to even the odds, the arrows piercing through even the strongest of armor, forcing several knights to take cover, but at the end of the day, he was still one man, and he required his army to perform just as well if he hoped to survive.

Seteth was doing the best he could on the ground, it was clear he was a force to be reckoned with, but it was also clear he relied on his Wyvern for mobility, meaning his dodging and moving was a bit too sluggish.

From the buildings he could see Lysithea firing several spells, her group already mobilizing for the trap as she ordered the healers to fall back, the battalion already having done what it could.

Dropping from his spot, he ran towards Seteth, who was making sure his soldiers had all left before leaving himself. Too close to fire an arrow, Claude smashed Failnaught into the head of the soldier, soon followed by Seteth’s lance, stabbing the man straight through the chest, before being pulled back, allowing gravity to take care of the rest as the man’s legs failed him.

‘’Pretty sure that is not how you are supposed to use that weapon.’’ Seteth said, blocking an incoming attack for Claude, who picked one of his arrows and stabbed into the soldier’s neck, before turning to slam his bow into another one.

‘’Hey if it works, it works.’’ He ducked from a slash, finally having enough space to grab his sword and stab the soldier attempting to strike him, kicking him into three more coming his way. ‘’Let’s go, anyone who could escape has already escaped, the only thing we’ll do if we stay here is die with them.’’

Seteth grimaced but nodded, backing away with him, never turning away from the enemy but giving them space to give chase.

Along the way he met Hilda and Raphael, who’s battalions intercepted the forces chasing them, allowing them to properly escape, dashing towards the ruins, where Lysithea was waiting with her mages.

‘’What even IS the plan here? We scattered that black sand as you asked, but we have no idea what it does.’’ Hilda said, almost outpacing him in how fast she was.

‘’Just stay in position and prepare for a counter attack when the enemy gets distracted.’’ He responded, taking the chance to aim a few shots on some of the soldiers breaking through the battalion’s formation, there were arrows being fired back, but they were aimless and desperate, just hoping to hit something instead of properly aiming for it. ‘’I guess that’s the difference between having the advantage and being absolutely desperate as like we are.’’ Claude thought. ‘’They can afford to miss and brute force their way through, so they end up keeping themselves way open and easy to avoid, while we have been basically tip toeing our way this whole battle.’’

Finally, he ran past Lysithea, who was already in position with her group, Leonie and Ignatz were above them on the walls next to the stairs that led to the entrance of Garreg Mach, firing arrows with as much precision as he was, making every shot count, if not an instant kill, then at least enough to guarantee someone else’s kill.

The dirt in the area ahead of them was darker as a result of being mixed with the black sand, however it was unnoticeable in the heat of war, to the enemy it looked like they were backed into a corner and about to make their final stand.

‘’This better work, Claude.’’ Lysithea said, her healers already healing whoever they could there, while her mages prepared their collective fire spell. ‘’If it doesn’t we are done for.’’

‘’Oh come on, when have I ever led you guys wrong?’’

The collective glare of every single one of his present ex-classmates was damning.

‘’You know what, point taken.’’

‘’They are here!’’ Seteth yelled, getting himself in his usual stance with his spear ready.

‘’Alright, Lysithea, NOW!’’

The spell hit the ground ahead of them, the very ground where a good chunk of the enemy army was standing right now. 

The ground they’d mix with that black sand from outside of Fódlan he’d been experimenting with for a while now.

He expected the ground to erupt in flames, to generate enough fire to either kill anyone in it or force them to retreat, to minimize their numbers and routes towards the

Monastery, funneling the enemy into small spots around the fire where they could easily fight the soldiers off.

What he didn’t expect was the entire ground in front of them to _explode_ like it did.

The flames generated were tall enough for Cyril to have to _dodge _them while riding his wyvern, and the sheer pressure of it forced everyone to their knees, the heat singing several of them, even when they were a supposedly safe distance from it.

‘’CLAUDE!’’ Lysithea yelled, the last he’d seen of her was her rolling towards the monastery, her small frame being flung away by the hot air. Looking around, he noticed Hilda on her knees, her outfit’s sleeves singed as she used her arms to protect her face, Leonie desperately trying to calm down her horse, Ignatz removing his now burning coat as Raphael tried to help.

His soldiers were all either shook by the explosion or flat out knocked down right then and there. Luckly no one from their side got seriously injured in it. The other side however…

He couldn’t help but grin as he watched the fire, still burning bright and hot, dividing them from the Empire troops, who were either scrambling or trying to go around the fire, not even attempting to go rescue their comrades in the flames, as that was clearly pointless, anyone who wasn’t already dead already wouldn’t survive for long in those flames, they’d just be risking more of their numbers.

‘’Well, how’s that for evening the odds?’’ He said spinning Failnaught in his hand, already taking aim on the soldiers trying to go around the fire on the left side.

‘’Claude I swear, if we make it through this.’’ Hilda said, taking some soldiers — along with Raphael, who was done saving Ignatz from his own burning coat— and moving towards the other side. ‘’I am going to beat you to death.’’

/-/

The last of her group had fallen right before her, she thanked him for at least taking one of these bastards with him as he died, his sword slashing his killer’s throat as he gritted his teeth, trying to remain conscious for what little he had left of life.

Finally, he fell, leaving her alone.

The soldiers surrounded her, she couldn’t properly see the full number, as the blood streaming from her head forced her to close one of her eyes shut, however by her count, they were at least seven or eight. Between desperate gasps for air, she managed to pull a smile, baring her teeth to all the enemies.

‘’You are surrounded, surrender now.’’

She spared the room around her a quick glance; the hall, even after everything that had happened to the place, was almost pristine, beautiful as anything else, statues of saints and knights still standing tall and proud. She wondered if Catherine once stood proud like those statues did, when her final moments came.

Her vision became hazy as she remembered these very halls, before the war, before being separated, before the fall of Garreg Mach, she remembered the days where she was just a Knight of Seiros, working not out of devotion, but out of debt. How even though they couldn’t be more different, she and Catherine quickly became a team, how no matter the situation, together they always found a way out.

Shamir couldn’t help but feel nostalgic, of the early days in Garreg Mach, of meeting the woman who soon became her partner, of being impressed by her skill, her unhealthy devotion for the church.

She feared ending like Catherine, fighting for a pointless cause, for something that had no meaning, fighting for the Monastery simply to defend a religion that had been rejected by the masses, a religion that thrived on fanaticism.

However, at that moment, when she prepared to keep fighting, when she found the will to keep going, it wasn’t for the sake of the Monastery. The place itself never meant anything for her, as she didn’t believe in the church’s teachings, much less their faith. But the more she thought, she realized part of her logic was wrong.

The place wasn’t special because of her beliefs, but it was still special to her, for very different reasons. At first it was nothing but a simple job, another mission, another source of income to keep life going; and yet, the more she fought, the more she lived there, the entire atmosphere of the place infected her. When she saw the Monastery she did not see a place of faith, a monument to praise the Goddess of Fódlan; instead she saw the place where she fought side by side with people who soon became her brothers in arms, people who she could feel pride in calling friends.

Where she met her new partner.

Spitting some blood, she forced herself back into her stance, favoring her good leg, keeping some pressure off her wounded one, dropping her bow entirely and picking up a sword, holding it in the stance she saw Catherine proudly take so many times.

She remembered training Cyril, the fire in the boy’s eyes as he attempted to replicate her moves, never once tiring out, wanting to be just like her. Alois and his stupid jokes, which while almost never hitting the mark, always helped lighting the mood in tense situations, the man always doing his best to keep everyone in high spirits, no matter the situation. Professor Byleth, always an oddball, but without a doubt one of the most reliable people she has ever met, constantly trying to help others even when it was entirely unnecessary or pointless, even now in this war, attempting to save her students not only from death but from themselves.

Catherine…

One of the first people she opened up to in a long time, the first she allowed to get inside her comfort zone for so long, someone who she grew to appreciate more than she’d ever believe herself capable of, even when they had their differences and disagreements.

‘’It’s funny…’’ She started talking, the soldiers clearly confused, but she wasn’t speaking to them, merely thinking out loud. ‘’For all my talk, for all the times I berated that impossible woman… Here I am, fighting a fight I can’t win for what? Mere sentimentality over a place… Something I’d never do in any other time, something I’d slap myself for even considering it in the past.’’

Shamir readied herself, as the soldiers began closing in, clearly done waiting. ‘’Heh, I guess her stupidity is rubbing off on me. I’ll see you soon, partner.’’

/-/

The shield slammed into him, almost tripping Claude, however Seteth grabbed him by the shoulder, already blocking another incoming attack with his spear and swinging Claude into the enemy, the momentum allowing him to slam his bow into the man’s face and end up on Seteth’s other side, already firing an arrow at another soldier.

‘’This isn’t working! I thought we got most of them!’’

‘’I suppose they had reinforcements.’’ Seteth blocked a sword with the middle of his spear, kicking the attacker away and falling back, Claude doing the same to give him more space. The soldiers he took along with him were slowly being swallowed by the mass of enemy soldiers, horrifyingly enough. ‘’Edelgard WOULD be that paranoid, besides, it is not as if she was running low on troops.’’

‘’And nothing of Teach…’’ He completed, grimly, ‘’I should’ve never have allowed her to go there, for all we know she’s now dead from whatever Rhea left for intruders, it wasn’t a two person mission, Rhea probably hoped for teach to bring a full team down there!’’

The look on Seteth’s face was solemn.

‘’I… I have faith in them, Claude.’’

He yelled for all remaining soldiers to fall back, and saw Hilda and Raphael doing the same, thankfully his friends were all there, Cyril soon dropping by to give them an update.

‘’There’s more coming from the forest! They had reinforcements waiting!’’

‘’Damn it, they were expecting us to spring something, so they threw some grunts on us, just so we’d waste our one gambit!’’ And he fell for it too, not only had his trick backfired hard, affecting his army along with the enemy thanks to the explosion he didn't foresee, but it was completely pointless. They were in an absolute pinch and it was all thanks to his poor planning.

‘’Claude… You need to leave.’’

He went silent, all eyes turned to Ignatz. ‘’What the heck are you talking about Ignatz? I’m not leaving you guys!’’

‘’He… May have a point…’’ Lysithea, much to his horror, continued. ‘’Claude, you’re the leader of the Alliance, if you die it’s all over, even worse if they capture you. Cyril can take you away from here, we’ll buy you two time to find the professor and escape.’’

‘’You guys CANNOT be serious! Seteth help me out here!’’  
Seteth’s eyes couldn’t meet his.

‘’I’m NOT leaving you guys! We’re in this together, it’s… It’s why I even did all of this!’’

‘’Claude…’’ Leonie attempted to calm him.

‘’We’re in this together, to th-‘’

His shoulder burned, he gasped more from the surprise than the sudden pain. ‘’_Gah_!’’

‘’Claude!’’ Lysithea was on him, treating the wound as best he could. In his distraction he got hit on the shoulder with an arrow. He could see the armies making their way closer, Ignatz and Leonie did their best to snipe anyone getting too close, while Hilda, Raphael and Seteth held the line.

She dragged him towards the other wounded soldiers, some already healed, some being healed, with the healers themselves already having to multitask between healing them and fighting.

Ripping her sleeve, Lysithea made a makeshift bandage over his wound, finishing her healing spell.

‘’Claude you have to go now!’’

‘’I… I can’t…’’

‘’You can’t even _fight _anymore!’’

He had no response to that, getting up, he winced, even with the healing, the wound was still too fresh.

Looking towards his friend, then towards Cyril, who was still there, sniping the soldiers he could, waiting for Claude to make a decision, the Leader of the Alliance never felt the weight of his title as much as he did then.

/-/

‘’NOW!’’

A flash of light took her away, and once she felt the ground below her feet, Sothis was already at a full sprint, Flayn right next to her. Deciding not to take any chances, Sothis grabbed her granddaughter by the waist and launched the sword’s point at the wall at the other side of the room, right next to the throne and the chests, allowing the sword to reel them both in, closing the distance in an instant.

The distance was perfect, even at full sprint, the soldiers and machines were going to take a while to reach them, the mausoleum being deceptively large.

‘’There!’’ Flayn yelled, pointing at a chest right next to the throne she once sat upon. Reaching it, Sothis quickly opened it, there was no lock, as Seiros wouldn’t expect anyone beyond her to make it that far.

Once light entered the chest, her shoulders fell.

‘’A shield?’’

She could tell it was enchanted with Nabatean power, it was an incredible shield however, it wouldn’t help them in their current situation.

Was that it? Was that what she took her time to find? She let everyone fend for themselves for this? Is THIS the gift Seiros wanted her to find? Had she misunderstood it?  
No, Seiros never said it was something to win the war, it was just something to help. Sothis had latched into the hopes of it being something to solve their current issue, all on a false sense of duty, a silly childish hope that a solution to their problems would instantly be given to them

She could’ve been out there helping them, and yet she chose to be there, worst of all, Flayn could’ve been there helping her friends, making an actual difference.

Right now, Byleth’s students were fighting to death, buying her time, for her to find a useless shield. She didn’t even know if they were even ALIVE anymore, they may have all died waiting for her to save them. What about Cichol? Her son died not knowing what happened to her and his own daughter, all that struggle to survive, all those promises of it going to be okay…

She couldn’t keep any of those.

They were all going to die because of her.

‘’No… This cannot be it, it _cannot _be it.’’

‘’S-Sothis?’’

She ignored Flayn, looking around, trying to find another chest, anything that could help, anything she overlooked.

Her eyes then stopped at the Throne.

Her hands balled into fists. 

Seiros never said what she had was an object, did she? All she said was that something in the Holy Tomb could help her, something could help with the mistake Seiros had done.

Sitting upon that throne was what started this mess in the first place, didn’t it? Then maybe doing that again would fix it.

She couldn't save Byleth’s students, she can’t win a war on her own, much less achieve a victory with the conditions she brought on herself. It was as clear as day every choice she made in this war had been a mistake since the start, she was not cut out for this, she couldn’t win it.

But Byleth could.

Resolve burning in her eyes, she spared Cethleann, her beloved granddaughter a final glance.

‘’Sothis we n-‘’ Her words were interrupted by the quick hug Sothis gave her, closing the distance before she even realized.

‘’Cethleann… I am glad I could have seen you grown up. You are a fine young lady, and I hope one day you find family of your own as well.’’

‘’W-What are y-‘’

‘’Take care of your father, please.’’

She _sprinted_ towards the throne, ignoring Flayn’s pleas, finally reaching the last step of the stone stairs. Turning around, she saw the soldiers approaching, the machines powered by her own magic preparing to continue their assault. She saw her grandchild, reaching for her, begging for her to stop.

She couldn’t help but smile.

Everything would be fine now, if there was someone who could fix this, it was Byleth.

Closing her eyes and sighing, she sat on the throne.

‘’Good luck Byleth.’’

Time seemed to freeze for a moment, as she awaited it, the darkness, the loss of consciousness, the feeling of being pulled from the body that was never hers to begin with.

It never came.

She closed her eyes harder, brows furrowed, as she reached deep within herself, as if looking inside her own soul.

‘’Come on…’’

The only noise in the room were the machines closing in, soon followed by Flayn’s footsteps on solid rock, going towards her.

‘’Please…’’

‘’Sothis…’’

A hand fell on her shoulder, she ignored it.

‘’Come back, please… I can’t…’’

‘’Sothis we need to go.’’

Her eyes reopened, and she could feel them getting misty already, she could see the machines preparing their attack, she could _hear _the explosions from above. They were done, everything was lost and it was all her fault.

She laughed, amidst all her sobs, all she could do was laugh at herself, at how pathetic she was, how everything she did was for nothing, about how she thought she could make a difference, how after getting the students back, returning to the monastery, getting the sword back, she thought she had a chance of fixing her mistake, a do over, another try.

There were no second chances, she ruined everything, again and again, she should have stayed dead.

Frustration bubbled inside of her, over her own inability to do anything, over the Empire’s attacks, over those accursed Agarthans who ruined her life so long ago and continued to do so.

_‘’RAAAAGH!’’_ She roared, slamming her fist on the right armrest of the throne, which to her annoyance, didn’t crack, much less break, more proof of how weak she was.

‘’I failed everyone, I cannot do a damned thing! I cannot save anyone, I cannot do _anything_!’’

She could feel Flayn trying to pull her but she ignored it, even with the machines forming their spears of light and taking aim.

‘’I am a failure! I am no goddess! The land I created, the people I promised to protect, are all suffering and what can I do?! _nothing_!’’

They were going to die, all of them, every single last one of them, Byleth's students, her family, anyone in Fódlan who dared to challenge Edelgard, and then Edelgard herself and her group, backstabbed by the Agarthans once they had full control of everything. Seiros brought her back for nothing, she couldn't do a damn thing to help, she was a fool, a damned fool to even think she could make a difference.

She slammed the armrest harder, and _this _time something happened, though not what she expected. Her eyes widened as a small piece of it started shining, forming a small tile, unnoticeable among the smooth stone before it lit up. A pattern of several other tiles lit up on the arm rest, and to her surprise, they were all filled with patterns she recognized. So did Flayn given her question.

‘’Are those… Nabatean symbols?’’

Sothis couldn’t help but sob, her relief almost palpable as she finally understood what Seiros was trying to show her.

Pressing a combination of those familiar symbols, all the machines marching towards them came to a stop. Beside her, Flayn gasped, also understanding what was happening. Pressing another combination, the machines deactivated entirely, and Sothis couldn’t stop the huge relieved smile from forming in her face. It seemed obvious in hindsight, Seiros required a way to operate all of these, so of course she would keep it in the safest place of the entire Monastery, the Holy Tomb. 

Pressing another combination, the machines came back to life but did nothing towards her. It was so clear now, it wasn't that Seiros had salvaged merely a few of them, she had as many as anyone would need, but refused to use them because of the technology ban she enforced on all of Fódlan, seeing these machines would make people want to understand them, try to reverse engineer them, and it made Seiros afraid of another Agartha. The Holy Tomb wasn't just a sacred place for Seiros, it being the source of Sothis' protective magic made for the safest place in all of Fódlan, Seiros didn't just leave these here to hide them, she redecorated the Holy Tomb so it could produce more of these and command them, increasing its defenses and security, making it the perfect bunker in case the Agarthans ever came for her family again.

That was what she wanted Sothis to find, a safe place should everything go wrong, the one place Edelgard and her army would have a hard time finding and an even harder time working around all the defenses.

Well, just like her protective spell had spread through the entire monastery, it was time for the new defenses of the Holy Tomb to do the same.

‘’Flayn, do you think you can teleport a small army outside?’’

Her eyes widened, realizing Sothis’ plan. ‘’I-I think I can, however I doubt I will have any strength left to fight afterwards.’’

‘’That will do.’’ She said, pressing another combination. The machines rose back to life, only this time, they made no move towards her, instead they stood there, waiting for further instructions, not only that, but more soon were formed from the walls and ceiling. She wiped her face from any remaining tears, her expression now confident. ‘’After all, you won’t need to do any fighting.’’

/-/

Her knee gave away, her dagger dropped on the floor, her body literally could not take it anymore, every single nerve burning in pain, as she tried her best to breath, to fill her lungs with as much air as they desperately needed, and yet it never seemed enough, her exhaustion had finally taken a toll.

Around her, all of the soldiers laid, their blood staining the hallway red, her sword long discarded, she had no strength to hold it anymore, her dagger even now in her hand, almost as if glued to it through the dried blood and sweat.

The only remaining soldier watched her as someone staring at a deadly beast, carefully observing, waiting to see if she’d spring back up and strike him down, as if that was a very real possibility, even when she was at death’s door.

The truth was that she simply had given her all, she had no strength, however, what she did have was the satisfaction that a single soldier, even if he struck the army from the back, it wouldn’t make a difference.

Blood pooled around her, from her several cuts and slashes, arms, back, torso, legs, none too deep, but all that meant was a death of thousand cuts.

The arrow on her side went a little deeper however, she broke it, leaving only the head inside, to not affect her mobility, and so it wouldn’t go deeper should anyone hit it.

Her left arm was most likely broken, she vaguely recalls a shield smashing into it. Oddly enough, all that pain combined made her entire body feel numb. She wasn’t even sure how she had done it, as much as she hated to admit it, Catherine was far better than she was in close combat, her specialty was ranged fights, not getting close and personal, much less with a sword.

Shamir laid on the floor, not defeated, not victorious, merely completing the mission she was given. She was never one for great celebrations or mourning things dramatically, if she completed a mission, that was her job, if she failed, she’d learn from it. Catherine would boast her victories, obviously, celebrate them joyously, every single victory, every single fight survived was a reason to celebrate.

Maybe that was why she was always so lively, for someone who constantly throws herself into fights, every moment alive was a victory.

As her vision started to become foggy, as the red blur of the soldier started approaching, her only regret was the fact she would never know if Claude actually succeeded or not. A small part of her thought this was what she deserved, for abandoning Catherine, for letting her die on her own instead of trying to seek another way. It was an unreasonable thought, but not one she felt like counter arguing, not at that point.

The soldier yelled in pain, which made Shamir keep her consciousness for a few more instances; from there she saw another person, she couldn’t even recognize them anymore, however, the glow of the Sword of the Creator was unmistakable.

‘’So you made it in the end… Eisner…’’

As she lost consciousness, Shamir’s final thought was why the Sword of the Creator looked so different from how she recalled.

/-/

It was impossible

He knew it wasn’t the logical choice, he knew he needed to see the big picture but he physically couldn’t leave his friends; his body absolutely REFUSED to run the other way.

‘’Cyril…’’

‘’Yes?’’

‘’Find Byleth, find Flayn, get Shamir and get the hell out of here.’’

He was placing the same burden on Cyril, he knew it, and he hated himself for it, he wasn’t solving the problem, just handing it to someone else. However, watching the very entrance of Garreg Mach burn in an absolute inferno, as his friends, tired and wounded, fought until their last breath, Claude found himself not caring.

‘’This is an order Cyril, my final order.’’

His iron grip on Failnaught was such that he felt his palm hurting, his wound hurt like hell, however when he saw a group of soldiers approaching the Monastery, all he felt was his resolve.

He fired an arrow, again, and again, and again, and again.

Each shot hit someone, he walked past the wall of soldiers protecting the wounded, some yelling for him to go back, he ignored, no, he couldn’t even hear them anymore, he was focused on the soldiers attacking his friends.

An axe went for Lysithea’s head, his arrow’s power cut off that man’s whole hand; a sword was about to hit Hilda’s chest, his arrow went for the man’s head; an archer aimed his bow at Raphael’s neck, his arrow broke both bow, arrow and pierced the archer’s chest; Ignatz struggled with a soldier wielding a lance, his arrow pierced the lance wielder’s side and the force of the impact threw him away from his friend; Leonie had abandoned her horse, trying to land a hit on a soldier with a shield, with a single hit, his arrow made the shield explode in shrapnel, all aimed at the soldier’s face.

Each shot he felt his blood boil, his wound heal slowly, thanks to Lysithea’s magic and his crest, this time not failing him.

This was all his fault, he accepted this plan, he led his friends on, left them to fend for themselves in this absolute hell with nothing but a skeleton crew and their wits, accepted leaving them stationed in a place where they had no hope of properly spread out and protect, leaving them to fight with a ridiculous amount of soldiers helping them, and finally worse of all, laid a trap that caused more harm than good and used it too early. Now his friends were all going to die because of him and he was supposed to do what? Leave them behind? Go back home, pretend nothing happened and send his condolences to their families once the news hit? Watch the Alliance fall apart because of his choices?

No

He made his bed, now he was going to lay on it.

A group of soldiers saw him, their eyes drifting towards the injured behind Claude.

They dashed towards him, and in that second, backed into a wall, Claude had made peace with himself. He had regrets, no doubt about it, but even if he died, any soldier he could take with him was a soldier his friends wouldn’t have to deal with. Gripping his family’s relic, he took aim at the first soldier of the group, feeling the weapon take his energy as his arrow burned with pure enchanted power.

Before he could fire it, white light flashed between him and the soldiers, blinding both sides. Several more flashes were seen in the surrounding area, especially at the front, all separating the armies, almost in a coordinated fashion.

Opening his eyes, he stared in awe at the giant statue in front of him, even more in awe at the fact it was _moving and staring back at him_. Looking around, he saw several new soldiers, fully armed, no skin showing, no banner or recognizable armor, along with more of these statues.

His eyes widened, was this just like those white beasts? Were they going to rampage over both armies?

A final flash of light revealed a familiar figure, atop the wall right behind him, the very entrance of the monastery, her cape flew in the wind, her sword was lit up in the same energy as his bow, and her face looked dead serious.

‘’Take down the Empire Soldiers! Defend everyone else! Do NOT let them get through, either push them back into the flames, or take them out!’’

As if on cue, the _things _started attacking the Empire army, the soldiers fighting normally, the giant things _hurling _spears made of pure energy at the enemy. Claude almost felt sorry for the group that he was about to fight, as the giant’s spear hit them dead on, the blast throwing their bodies about three streets away from where they were.

Claude could only watch in awe as these things not only in perfect synchrony with his own army but also obeying the professor’s command, instantly, _completely _changed the battlefield. Speaking of her, teach, done sending the instructions, hopped down, right next to him, with a smile so smug he was felt proud, said smile instantly vanished when she noticed his arm.

‘’Claude! Are you okay?’’

‘’I… Honestly don’t know, I think I got hit in the head… Maybe I’m bleeding out somewhere and seeing things…?’’

‘’I will explain later, right now I’d say it is time we get rid of these unwanted visitors, don’t you agree?’’

He grinned back at her, matching her smug smile. ‘’Now you’re getting the spirit of things.’’

It was barely a fight anymore, any troop that had broken through were either being annihilated by the combined efforts of the soldiers and the machines or running back into the fire, preferring some burns over the prospect of dealing with _those _ things, which Claude couldn’t really blame them for.

‘’Sir, they’re retreating!’’ He could see it, the army had lost a lot of their masses thanks to the sheer confusion of this sudden addition to the fight, whoever was left either realized they had no hope of winning or wanted to regroup and wait for another chance.

‘’Can you order those to circle back and give them chase? I’d rather not let them regroup.’’

Byleth bit her lip, ‘’these can’t leave the monastery, they’re bound by it.’’

‘’Well damn… I don’t wanna risk dividing the army, we don’t have enough numbers to take the ones escaping.’’

‘’I'm sorry…’’

He scoffed. ‘’Hey, what are you getting all upset for? You got us a base, and now we have a way to protect the base. It’s not an army we can take to Edelgard’s little palace to trash the place, but it gives us one thing we didn’t have before: Safety.’’

She really was beating herself up over that small detail wasn’t she? Just those small words were enough for her to stare wide eyed at him, as if he grew a second head or something.

‘’Don’t sweat over it, teach, as far as I care, you saved our lives today.’’

Her relief was palpable, a much more natural smile forming in her lips. ‘’R-Right. Thank you, Claude.’’

‘’Sir! You won’t believe what happened!’’ A soldier came, parts of his armor were gone, others charred, but even then, the man was in pretty good spirits.

‘’Honestly soldier, after today that’ll be pretty hard.’’

‘’A new army has joined the fight!’’

_That _got a reaction out of him, his smile fading. ‘’Are they e-‘’

‘’They’re helping us!’’

‘’…What?!’’ Both him and Teach yelled, glancing at each other once they realized it, then glancing back at the soldier.

‘’They are coming from the forest in front of Garreg Mach, pushing the soldiers escaping the monastery back into it, forcing them into either the fire or back into a fight with the undead soldiers and the golems!’’

‘’Well I’ll be damned… Do you have any idea who they are? Armor, banner, anything? This is nice and all but we can’t lower our guards just yet.’’

‘’You don’t need to worry about that, we merely wish to help out a few friends.’’ An unknown voice behind them yelled. Turning back, bow and arrow aimed, and sword of the creator out, the two were met by a familiar figure.

A supposedly dead figure.

‘’You have my word on it.’’ Thunder Catherine, Knight of Seiros, one of the Archbishop’s most loyal warriors, and someone who Seteth last saw surrounded by an army and presumed dead by all of them, stood right before them, Thunderbrand stabbing the ground as she placed both hands on the pommel, proudly staring them down. 

‘’Hope you don’t mind us joining the party, Lord Riegan.’’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Claude learns gunpowder and magic don't mix very well. Also Sothis gets robot army all to herself, meanwhile all Byleth got in canon was a shield, nepotism at it's best.  
But hey at least it was a dang good shield.
> 
> Bit of a rough chapter here, I can't say I'm 100% satisfied, but that's not something I'm gonna beat myself up over it, I just didn't have enough content to properly space some of the character moments, meaning pacing is a bit rushed here, sorry for that.


	13. Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone cools down after the abrupt end of the battle, new alliances are formed, decisions are made, and emotions flow as the team takes some time to be themselves after such a close call.

‘’Lord Randolph! Our troops are being overwhelmed!’’ The soldier looked desperate, afraid, Randolph could see why, in one fell swoop what was an easy conquest had been turned around, not by strategy, not by reinforcements, but by what could only be described as abominations, giant stone creatures and soulless soldiers, all showing up in a flash and crushing them.

He understood why Her Highness used the demonic beasts back in the Fall of Garreg Mach, she knew about those beasts the church had at their disposal, those monsters the so called ‘’goddess’’ unleashed on both sides once their victory was assured, like a kid throwing a tantrum.

And now he understood why her elite troops had those golems stationed at Fort Merceus and from what he heard, several other strategic spots, they were there in case the church attempted to use these things, a preemptive counter.

And to make matters worse, reinforcements arrived as well, right as almost all of his troops had entered the monastery, leaving them no escape, not to mention his squad never responding or returning, meaning they must have been found and disposed of.

‘’Take anyone you can and retreat.’’ He said, clenching his teeth, as the very thought of retreating pained him, he was not only a proud heir of the house Bergliez, but also a trusted general for Lady Edelgard, his retreat would reflect poorly on his highness; however to perish there would serve no purpose, instead, he had too much valuable information, enough for her to plan and prepare, of these golems, of the unknown rebel force with enough numbers and understandings of the church’s cursed relics to use them properly.

Of the green haired warrior holding a sword shining as bright as the sun.

‘’Sir?’’ The soldier remained still, confused by the orders, showing just how uncharacteristic of him it was.

‘’I gave you an order soldier, we retreat, Lady Edelgard will want to know of what happened here, she _needs _to know, and that can only happen if we make it out alive.’’ He sighed. ‘’We have lost the battle, but acquired information on our enemy that may allow us to win the war.’’

‘’Yes sir!’’ Already on the move, the soldier relayed the information, his remaining troops already falling back and ordering anyone left to do the same. If there was any comfort, was that the enemy also took a heavy blow, even if they replaced their numbers, the heavy toll of the day would not be forgotten, his men left a mark.

Another source of solace would be knowing Fleche would see him again, she’d been worrying about him in every mission he took ever since Ladislava fell five years ago.

_ ‘’Enjoy your extended survival, rebels, if anything, I would not take away Lady Edelgard’s pleasure of personally delivering your end.’’ _

/-/

‘’C-Catherine? You’re alive?!’’ 

Claude couldn’t believe his eyes, the tale Seteth described gave no room for Catherine and the other knights to survive, heck, any intel his spies managed to scour from Faerghus implied the knights were all but gone, all signs of resistance having vanished.

And yet right before his eyes, jumping down the stone structure to greet them properly, stood Thunder Catherine, one of Rhea’s best knights and the one who helped Seteth in his journey.

‘’Alive and better than ever, it’s good to see you again Claude, or should I say Lord Riegan?’’ She gave him a respectful bow, which he waved away. 

‘’Claude, please, I’ve been in this position for about three years and I’m already sick of formalities.’’ She chuckled at his response, offering a handshake instead, which he gladly took. 

‘’Forgive my troops for the different look, Knights of Seiros aren’t very popular around these parts anymore, and we’d rather reveal no allegiance at all to not put our allies in the aims of the Empire.’’ She turned to face the professor, who looked as confused as he was. ‘’Professor! It’s great to see you’re finally awake, Seteth went to great hurdles to keep you alive, and I’m glad to see the effort paid off, big time one might say given what you two are doing here today.’’

‘’Y-Yes… I… How did…’’ Byleth was far less elegant in hiding her confusion, almost babbling as if she had seen a ghost, and as humorous as that was, he had to cut it short.

‘’I really want to know what happened as well, however, ladies, if you’d forgive me, could we talk shop later? We’re in the middle of something here, and I’m pretty sure my questions aren’t just limited to Catherine.’’ He glanced at the professor, who quickly realized what he meant, what with the literal colossus in the room.

‘’Ah, right! Catherine, can your troops force the enemy back in so ours can finish it off?’’

‘’Already on it, just give your… Uh, things, the order.’’ Catherine clearly was as lost as he was when it came to the giants, meaning it wasn’t a secret known by the knights, this was something completely new even for her. 

Shaking his head, Claude stopped that thought process before he lost himself for good in it, he had work to do. ‘’Very well, since your troops are taking care of everything, if you don’t mind I’ll see to mind, assess the damage, order their retreat, check the wounded, you know the drill.’’ He’d lie if he said he also wasn’t desperate to see how his friends were.

‘’I saw Hilda with some bruises on the left side of the fire trap, so I had Flayn go ahead and tend to her and the rest of the wounded, if you don’t mind.’’ He didn’t, not at all, heck if it weren’t for Seteth most likely disemboweling him for it, he could kiss that girl right now.

‘’Right, thanks.’’ 

Claude ran off, leaving Catherine and Byleth to organize their troops together, he’d get his answers, but his friends came first, especially given how close of a call it was.

Hilda was easy to spot, given her hair color, although some of it was washed out thanks to the cinders in it, his fault, his unhelpful brain reminded him, Flayn was next to her, tending to some other soldiers, along with Lysithea, Seteth and Raphael. Claude couldn’t help but feel his blood run cold when he didn’t see the rest of his friends.

‘’Ah, Claude! There you are!’’ A familiar voice, followed by a familiar wyvern roar landed behind him, Cyril didn’t seem heavily wounded, at worst he was shook by it all, the adrenaline slowly going down. ‘’Leonie and Ignatz went ahead to scout for the wounded or any stragglers, I was helping them by scouting from above, we’re good.’’

That meant they were all okay, and Claude could feel his legs almost going limp from sheer relief. For a real moment there he was worried someone of his friends had died because of his poor decisions, heck they _would _have died if it weren’t for Byleth and her miraculous army of… Statues and undead soldiers, which was still a concept he tried to get around.

‘’How’s the arm?’’

‘’As good as new, Crested blood has some advantages beyond the burdens of nobility.’’

‘’So, mind explaining what the heck was that thing you had us mix with the sand? I thought it’d produce fire, not… Do _that_.’’ Cyril waved in the general direction of the battlefield, where an area far beyond what Claude had planned to burn now stood charred and broken, several craters formed from the sudden explosions, which only spread the fire further.

‘’That was a little something I picked from outside Fódlan.’’ Claude sighed, placing both hands on his hip. ‘’It’s supposed to light on fire when in contact with even a small spark, and it burns good. At least it was supposed to do that, and just that.’’

‘’What do you think went wrong?’’

‘’Well…’’ He rubbed his chin, ‘’I never really tested it with this much of it, that and I never used fire magic on it before so…’’

‘’So you didn’t test it enough.’’

Claude tried to keep his best smirk, desperately trying to ignore Cyril’s glare, or heck, _everyone's _glare, as his friends realized what he was talking about, Lysithea and Hilda walking towards him with pure murder in their eyes.

‘’I’d say it was a learning experience, wouldn’t you ag-ARGH’’ Hilda’s fist connected with his stomach before he could even finish his sentence, knocking the air out of his lungs as he bent forward, only for Lysithea to move behind him and kick his back, forcing him to the floor, where both kept kicking him.

‘’Argh w-wait I-Ouch, don-, WHY?!’’ Claude could only scream as the two kept kicking him right then and there, his friends slowly all forming a circle to watch but not joining.

‘’THIS IS FOR TRYING TO SET US ON FIRE WITH THAT HAREBRAINED TRAP OF YOURS!’’ Hilda yelled, both hers and Lysithea’s outfits singed and torn in several spots, hair loose, almost grayed by the ash, both drenched in sweat and dirt, and reasonably upset at him over at least two of those being his fault. ‘’Here’s an idea, how about next time you decide to come up with a plan that might involve INCINERATING US, try to give a heads up?’’

‘’I- AGH, I DID THOUGH! I S-OOF, SAID WE’D LIGHT THE F-UGH, THE FLAMES OF REVOLUTION!’’ Claude managed to blurt, still getting kicked and coughing both from still being out of air and the dust the kicks were raising. The words only made them kick him harder

‘’THAT was your warning?!’’ It was Lysithea’s turn to yell at him. ‘’How about next time you just be a little bit clearer? ‘’Hey everyone, stay as far away from that area as possible, I will burn it to the ground because I am a freaking lunatic!’’ How does that sound?!’’ She said, making a mocking attempt at mimicking Claude’s voice.

‘’Girls, girls, please, we still need him alive.’’ A new voice arrived, awfully calm given what was happening, both girls stopped, turning their attention to Byleth, who along with Catherine, joined the group. ‘’You can beat him up for his half assed schemes once we’re done with the war.’’

Both stopped, huffing as they did so.

‘’If you say so, professor,’’ Lysithea started, ‘’now if you excuse ME, I will have some cake. Care to join me, Hilda?’’

‘’With pleasure.’’

She made sure to ‘’accidentally’’ kick Claude one last time when walking past him, satisfied with his final groan and they left.

‘’Come on, here.’’ Byleth offered him a hand, he accepted, the girls didn’t hurt him for real, they weren’t THAT cruel, but it did leave him a bit winded after everything they went through, not that he felt what they did was wrong, they had every right to be upset with him. ‘’And up you go!’’ She said, almost childishly as she pulled him up, Catherine helping a bit.

‘’Urgh, why did they come to a battlefield wearing _high heels_?!’’ Claude groaned, massaging his head.

‘’Too bad they don’t teach you how to be good with women at Garreg Mach, you sure could use a few lessons.’’ Catherine mocked him.

‘’Hey, not my fault I was too hot for them to handle.’’ Claude said, without missing a beat. 

‘’Preeetty sure if they heard that you’d be back on the ground.’’ Byleth helpfully added, which was what had Claude getting back on track. 

‘’Right, about the armies?’’

‘’It’s over, my soldiers are helping the wounded to the infirmary, we had already cleared the path there to bring Shamir to it.’’ Catherine started, and raised a hand when she noticed Claude’s worried expression. ‘’She’s in a stable condition, Shamir is a stubborn mule, she won’t die that easily.’’

‘’How _did _you get to her? We secured all main entrances.’’

‘’I’m a high ranking knight, I knew some of the secret passages of the monastery, figured the enemy would try breaching them and went through the most accessible one with a group of knights to go and check all the others I could remember, and then I ended up finding Shamir on one of them, passed out on the floor, covered in blood, hers and from her enemies, surrounded by dead bodies, both allies and Empire troops, with only one soldier remaining.’’

‘’Shamir fought off an entire group of soldiers alone?’’

‘’Like I said, she’s stubborn as a mule.’’ She sighed. ‘’Seeing her just… Laid on the floor like that, not gonna lie, I was scared, thankfully we had a healer among us, honestly, she was lucky, if we had arrived even a few minutes late…’’ She shook her head. ‘’In any case, if the professor is here, I’m sure Seteth is as well, correct? That should cut down on how much I need to explain.’’

‘’Yes, Seteth went to see to the retreating troops, but he’s here, we found him a few months after he left the Kingdom, all thanks to you.’’ He nodded at Catherine, the knight smiling warmly in response. ‘’Flayn was with us the entire time, we couldn’t leave her alone during the attack once it was clear the battle was lost, so we dragged her along with us to Alliance territory.’’

‘’I thought I saw her around here, huh, didn’t recognize her with her hair like that.’’

‘’Yeah, soon after, the professor woke up and…’’ He sighed. ‘’My friends decided it was a sign to stick it to the Empire, so to say.’’

He looked at the battlefield, though the battle was won, it was a close call, and that was but a fraction of the Empire’s forces, their so called resistance almost went down with a whimper before it could even make a strike. Edelgard would probably not even know of it, thinking it was just a group of rowdy rebels, nothing else.

Catherine realized what he was thinking and placed a hand on his shoulder. ‘’I can’t really fault them or you for it, I know very well what is like to act on impulse. That I’ve been fighting the Empire with a bunch of knights with no banner to call their own just to get some revenge already shows that.’’

‘’You helped us today however, I won’t forget that.’’ He turned to the professor. ‘’And you saved us, no ifs or buts.’’

‘’Ah, I j-‘’

‘’Which leads me to my next question, with all due respect…’’ He pointed towards the giant stone creature behind her, which had all but stopped moving once they said the enemies were all gone. ‘’What the _hell_ is that thing.’’

‘’Ah… Right…’’

/-/

Seteth watched the troops in silence, making sure no man had been left behind or was mistaken for dead, this battle had already been cruel enough without them making any mistakes of the like. He was focused on his task, however, centuries of life, few spent on battle, taught him how to scan the area almost on instinct, no input or thinking necessary, which meant his thoughts were free to wander.

He hadn’t seen Flayn or his mother ever since the fight started, that Rhea’s machines defended them spoke of their success, however not of their survival. It was ridiculous, he knew, they were going to be fine, they had to be fine, his mother would flee with her in tow before letting Flayn do anything risky.

That wouldn’t stop her from sacrificing her own life to save Flayn, however, or Flayn to disobey her and pull a last stand, his treacherous mind so helpfully remembered him.

_ ‘’Flayn attempted to find me during the previous fight for Garreg Mach, only Claude was there to drag her away, if something happened to mother there would be no such person to do that, she would be left wandering in despair on a hellish battlefield.’’ _

He tried to force those thoughts back, he really did.

_ ‘’It could be just like last time, they are gone and I have no idea where they went, my daughter went through hell and I wasn’t there to protect her, my mother escaped to do a last stand to defend her family while I could only pick up the pieces after it was all done, I failed them again.’’ _

This was just like the fight of Garreg Mach, the fight where he lost his remaining family, almost permanently, Seiros was gone, his mother would possibly never wake up again and he didn’t even know or dared to guess what fate befell his daughter.

_ ‘’It is just like last time, only now I did not even get to choose a family member to save, as cruel as that choice was, I still HAD a choice, now th-‘’ _

‘’Oh, there you are father!’’

He snapped back to reality, to his daughter currently hugging him, his trembling hands embracing her back. ‘’F-Flayn…’’

‘’I was so worried about you, by the time Sothis and I returned from the Tomb the battlefield was nothing but chaos! I am glad you are fine!’’

‘’I… I am too my daughter.’’ He sighed, relief crashing into him so hard he felt like almost collapsing. It had been five years, but the scars of that eventful battle were still fresh in his mind, the aftermath that left him unable to sleep properly for years, unable to be in peace or rest properly, it was all still very recent, and his mind was still healing. 

He didn’t dare to let go of the hug, Flayn didn’t seem to be bothered by it, apparently having quickly noticed it.

‘’How’s your grandmother?’’ He whispered, looking around but failing to find her green hair in the distance. ‘’Is she…’’

‘’She’s fine!’’ Flayn quickly answered ‘’A bit winded from fighting Seiros’ defense mechanisms, but other than that just fine, in high spirits too, given how she was able to help everyone after all.’’

‘’She did…’’

‘’I came to collect you, Claude sent Leonie to do some scouting and keep an eye for any men left behind, he wants you there to discuss something.’’

‘’Is it related to this unknown army that dealt the finishing blow?’’

‘’Maybe.’’ Flayn chuckled, a good sign, which allowed him to relax, she knew what it was and it wasn’t bad, some good news finally.

Flayn slowly let go of the hug, pulling him by his arm as they navigated towards the battlefield, going inside the monastery, towards the garden. In the middle of it, there stood three figures, Claude and his mother, much to his relief, both casually talking to…

‘’It… Cannot be…’’

Catherine, one of his most loyal knights, the teen he took in and trained, the naïve girl with hopes of becoming the Archbishop’s guardian, the legendary knight who fought at his side and protected his family more times than he could remember.

The woman who saved his life and allowed him and his mother to survive and reunite with Flayn.

She quickly noticed his shocked gaze, and when he made no move, she made hers, giving him a bear hug so strong it lifted him off the floor. ‘’Seteth! You bastard, I knew you’d make it!’’

‘’I… I..’’

Her eyes widened, quickly dropping him and bowing. ‘’Ah- Apologies sir, I uh… Got invested in the moment.’’ She scratched the back of her, like she always did, even as an initiate, whenever she acted without thinking, rushed her way through things and made a mess. Seteth couldn’t help but smile.

‘’For what it’s worth.’’ He placed a hand on her shoulder. ‘’I feel this time it was warranted.’’ 

She relaxed, smiling back at him.

‘’How did you…?’’

‘’We had a secondary mission while escorting you, we were supposed to meet up with some other knights Rodrigue wanted to collect for our cause, allies that had remained hidden until then. They saved us in the nick of time.’’

‘’I must thank them then, are they with you here today?’’

‘’Ah, no, no, they remained in Rodrigue’s territory.’’ She quickly looked away, ‘’They were similar to me, too recognizable and infamous to travel freely, so bringing them along would get us caught, heck Alouis had to stay behind as well since he’s also well known.’’

‘’I see…’’ Too recognizable? He didn’t realize how many of the knights of Seiros were so well known, then again, it was Faerghus, the place where their faith was the strongest, they would of course hold the knights in higher praise than anywhere else. ‘’Very well then, I hope one day I may be able to meet them, to thank them for what they did.’’

He moved on to Claude, who outside his outfit, which looked torn and singed, looked unharmed. ‘’Mr. Riegan, Flayn informed you called me, considering where we are, I assume it is related to our sudden saviors?’’

‘’Pretty much.’’ Claude shrugged, ‘’When the professor went to the Holy Tomb to pick up something Rhea left I expected a weapon, maybe something that would make the Sword of the Creator stronger, heck another relic, not… Undead Soldiers.’’

‘’They are not really undead.’’ His mother added, unhelpfully. ‘’They’re just... Not alive.’’

‘’Yeah about that, _what _exactly are they? Is it safe to trust them?’’

Sothis waved her hand almost scoffing at his worries, ‘’No need to be so careful around them, they are as I said, not alive, merely animated armor and stone without will of their own, they are puppets, in simpler terms.’’ Claude hummed, still a bit weirded out. ‘’I wanted to take them to the Holy Tomb so I can show them where the soldiers come from, plus give them control, just in case.’’ She told him.

‘’Wait, you knew about these things?’’ Claude questioned, narrowing his eyes.

‘’I knew of them, not that the Archbishop had them hidden inside the Tomb… I’d have activated them during the invasion if I knew, or even when Edelgard invaded the Tomb.’’ He answered honestly. He knew Rhea hid technology out of fear of humans advancing, and that was a fair fear after what had happened, however the invasion had reached a point where anything was valid, to keep these hidden even in the face of such odds just showed how much Sothis’ death had affected Seiros.

‘’Come along, I’ll explain your questions on the way.’’ Sothis said, placing a hand on the entrance, opening the door to the Tomb’s secret staircase. 

Claude eyed the entrance with some worry, hesitating to step into it.

‘’You know, if you are afraid of the dark you can hold my hand.’’ Sothis offered, teasing the Alliance leader.

‘’More afraid of this being the part where I’m killed inside a secret dungeon for knowing too much.’’ He playfully answered, however there was a bit of an edge to his answer, indicating it was less him joking and more an actual fear he knew was silly but couldn’t ignore.

And given how Seiros would’ve reacted to these machines being revealed to the world, he hated to say Claude was right to be afraid.

/-/

The way down was illuminated not with torches, but crystals, more of her tech at work, washing the darkness away with a bright green and preventing them from tripping on the long staircase. On the entire way down, Cichol and Claude talked, any questions the Alliance leader had answered as best as he could, Sothis had brought him in to help cover up the information Claude didn’t need to know, while also being as honest as possible.

‘’Why keep it all hidden in here? Did the Archbishop not see how useful these could be?’’

‘’She did, however, as the books said, the people of Fódlan in the past misused the gifts of the Goddess, using it to wage war and try to trample on her realm. Saint Seiros sealed all their technology away, and it became the Church’s main goal to keep order and peace by Seiros’ teachings.’’ Cichol said, all of it technically true, Sothis was admired at how much her son had learned to lie through his teeth, not really something she should be proud of, but the feeling was still there. ‘’Lady Rhea along with all the previous Archbishops had the task to keep this technology hidden, to prevent what happened to ever repeat itself.’’

‘’Keeping the people of Fódlan from ever advancing? Not for nothing but there are… A few things I noticed lacking in here that we had back home, I assume it was the church?’’

Cichol cringed. ‘’Sadly yes, I am afraid we were overzealous in our task.’’

‘’That’s one way of putting it.’’ Claude sighed. ‘’I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be dumping all of this on you, it’s clear Rhea had a hand in more than I thought.’’

‘’She was… Very loyal to Seiros’ teachings, which led to some mistakes on her part. Believe me, I tried to prevent her from getting more extreme but… My work left me unable to oversee her properly and I clearly missed some things in the way.’’ He sighed ‘’That’s not to say I am free from blame.’’

‘’Still, even then, this level of advancements is beyond anything I’ve seen, to think the church could’ve used it all along…’’ Claude said, changing the subject, once he noticed Cichol growing uncomfortable. ‘’I guess at least the Church wasn’t hypocritical in their ways, they didn’t use that tech just as they made others not use it, even in the face of people who didn’t play by said rules, going by what the professor had told me.’’

‘’I guess this helps proving that story, does it not?’’ She said, looking back at Claude as they kept descending the stairs.

‘’It does, if the Holy Tomb has this sort of advancements in it, it having some sort of special defenses against similar tech and magic is pretty likely… I’m glad you guys found this, if Edelgard’s allies will use this tech, us having it as well could even the odds.’’

Sothis cringed, using her gifts to war, once she hated the idea, but now it felt like they didn’t really have much of a choice. The silver lining was that there wasn’t much the golems could do outside the Monastery, meaning they’d be working more as defense than attack, and there weren’t any other weapons available, just some other things only she knew how to use and wouldn’t be very helpful in war anyways.

However there was still a thing or two that would at least help the children survive this hellish situation, she thought, as the gears inside her head began turning.

‘’If it makes you feel any better Seteth, I trust that you’d have used the tech if you could, at least to help the professor once she fell into her sleep, you would do anything for family.’’

‘’Eh?!’’

They both froze in place, Sothis almost falling downstairs when her sudden stop led to Catherine knocking into her before narrowly catching her, and holding a brick elevated on the wall when Claude and Cichol slammed into her as well, keeping the entire group from falling.

‘’Augh geesh, calm down!’’

‘’F-Family?’’ Cichol managed to say, still trying to form an excuse. ‘’N-Now surely there has been a misunderstanding here a-‘’

‘’Come on Seteth, I don’t think there hasn’t been a single person in the group that didn’t notice.’’ 

Cichol turned to Catherine in horror, who merely shrugged. ‘’It wasn’t my business so I didn’t say anything.’’

‘’So is she Flayn’s sister? You’re as protective of her as you are of Flayn.’’ Claude said, quickly glancing between the two, checking the similarities. ‘’What’s wrong Seteth? Don’t want people to think you’re old given you have an adult daughter?’’

Cichol choked.

‘’Niece!’’ She yelled, before Cichol could give anything away. ‘’I’m his niece.’’

''Ah, so you're her uncle? See, Seteth it wasn't that bad, I've known some people who are almost the same age as their uncles, yo-''

''Great Uncle actually'' Sothis, so unhelpfully corrected, making Cichol choke.

Claude choked as well, but that was him desperately trying to hold a laughter, his face stuck in a tug of war, trying to force down the smug smile with a wince.

‘’You have a sister?’’ Claude raised an eyebrow, finally recovering. ‘’Huh, guess you do have a life outside of the monastery.’’

Recomposing himself, Cichol attempted to take the reins of the conversation. ‘’Y-Yes, she’s my niece, I did not wish to make it public out of fear of people thinking I was playing favorites, which was why at first I was so upset with the Archbishop’s choice, given the clear nepotism of her part in having her granddaughter be a teacher.’’

They could almost hear the pin dropping the second Cichol finished running his big mouth. Almost, as all sound got buried under the sound of Sothis’ palm connecting with her own face.

‘’The Archbishop’s your sister?! Wait she’s the Archbishop’s _granddaughter_?!’’

Sighing, Cichol realized his mistake, and how it was too late to go back now. ‘’Indeed, Byleth was Lady Rhea’s granddaughter, she had been estranged since she was a baby, given Jeralt’s… Not very high opinion of the Archbishop, and in turn she wished to get closer to her family by giving her a position close to herself.’’ And to try and force her dead divine mother out of Byleth, Cichol of course left unsaid, ‘’Her unusual hair change was a result of Rhea’s crest taking effect, one of the many effects it has on their bearers.’’

‘’Well damn, so wait, Rhea’s a grandmother? Is extended youth also an effect of her crest? She doesn’t _look _like a grandmother.’’ Cichol made to answer but was cut off by Claude’s mumbling, ‘’Then again it does make sense, you’re siblings and yet you look much older than her, even when she’s supposedly a grandmother.’’

Ouch, even in the dimly lit stairway, she could see Cichol’s eye twitching.

‘’And here I was bragging about quick healing, the Crest of Seiros is on an entirely different level, huh.’’

‘’It sure is.’’ Catherine said, winking at Cichol, ah, right, she knew about Rhea being Seiros, Sothis was already getting lost in their obtuse web of lies.

/-/

‘’The absolute nerve of that guy.’’ Lysithea sighed into her cup of tea, ‘’Learning experience, tch, yeah, he sure learned something after that, I bet.’’

Hilda’s only response was a soft chuckle, her rage had simmered down after a good shower and the prospect of some sweets, but Lysithea’s was anything but gone, the younger girl wasn’t exactly known for holding a grudge, but she doubted that would go away any time soon.

In reality they both were probably still reeling in from their experience, it had been a close call, closer than any of them might have hoped for. Claude did the best he could in his situation, his attempt at levity was just very unfortunate, especially given he refused to listen to them and was ready to throw his life away along with them, dooming any chance of saving Fódlan; Hilda couldn’t blame him, it was selfish, he didn’t want to be the only survivor, he didn’t wish to live while every one of his friends died.

For all her bravado about refusing to sacrifice herself, Hilda could understand that selfishness.

Thankfully they all survived to call Claude out on his stupid move, and hopefully they will survive long enough to look back on this day and laugh.

‘’I even went through the trouble of patching him up, for what? So he’d use his crest to heal anyways and get himself in more trouble, how the heck did he even become Leader of the Alliance?’’

‘’You did a pretty good job there, Ly.’’ Hilda said, hoping to switch the subject, allow Lysithea to forget this and relax for a bit, while cutting a piece of cake for herself. ‘’I didn’t know you were so skilled in patching up wounds, Marianne and Flayn I knew since they were our go to healers, but you were mostly an offensive magician, where did you learn that?’’

‘’Ah, I guess you could say I have… A lot of experience with treating wounds.’’ Lysithea could barely hide how uncomfortable she felt right then and there, Hilda noticed in an instant. ‘’I-I had some tutors ever since I was younger, since my talent got noticed, they tried to… Get me well versed in all types of magic and skills to improve it.’’ Again, Lysithea attempted to hide her grimace, this time by sipping some tea.

‘’Speaking of magic, is that what those things the professor brought are?’’ Changing the subject completely, Hilda nodded to one of the giant stone creatures, now completely still like a mere statue, standing on the edge of the garden, watching over the entire area easily given its size. ‘’I didn’t expect whatever they’d find would be so… Useful, I assumed Lady Rhea left them a weapon or something.’’

‘’It’s honestly odd, they have a faint signature of Faith Magic, but it’s very different from what I’m used to.’’

‘’How so?’’

‘’Usually when you see a magic construct, it’s less a living thing and more several pieces brought together by magic, as if the spell is wearing the objects like a suit of armor, in very basic terms.’’ Lysithea placed her cup on the table, her now free hand wrapping itself around her chin as she pondered about Hilda’s question. ‘’This however? It feels less like an empty suit of armor and more like a fully dressed knight, with some spells to enhance their strength.’’

‘’They’re alive?!’’

‘’Not really, it’s just… Ugh, I’m not sure I understand the full concept of it myself, it’s as if the magic there isn’t enhancing them but merely a source of fuel.’’

‘’I mean they were in the Holy Tomb, correct? They’re probably something made by the Goddess herself, so they wouldn’t work on normal rules, it’s understandable that you wouldn’t be well versed into it if you’d never even heard of something like it.’’

‘’I wouldn’t say I had never seen anything of the sort.’’ Lysithea noticed Hilda’s eyes widening in surprise and raised her hands. ‘’However! I was way younger, I barely remember it, why I didn’t even have much in way of understanding magic back then. Which is why this feels so frustrating to me, I’m trying to remember it better but...’’

‘’Don’t worry about it, Ly.’’ Hilda leaned forward, placing a hand on her shoulder. ‘’It’s magic above anything we know, just like the crests themselves.’’

‘’Just like the crests themselves, huh…’’ Lysithea’s eyes narrowed, and Hilda felt like her friend’s mind was in somewhere far away from that garden, and going by her expression, not exactly a pleasant place.

‘’Well enough talking about magic, geesh look at me, I feel like I’m back in class.’’ Cutting another piece of the cake, she placed it on Lysithea’s emptied plate.

‘’W-wait I…’’

‘’Come on, come on, all this talking got me tired and hungry, let’s finish this cake.’’

‘’I…’’ For a second Lysithea’s eyes widened, understanding Hilda’s message, they just survived a rough battle, they should relax, not get even more stressed. With a sigh, Lysithea smiled and picked up her fork. ‘’Yeah… You’re right.’’

Their chat never got past small talk, and yet it felt incredibly pleasant, just enjoying each other’s company.

/-/

It wasn’t the first time either Claude or Catherine entered the Holy Tomb, Sothis realized, which made it easier for her, as she wouldn’t need to give them a tour. In fact, they seemed more distracted by the remains of the mechanical warriors and golems she took out on her last visit.

‘’These were all you?’’ Claude squatted, inspecting the remains closer, even grabbing a piece of scrap when it was clear Sothis and Seteth didn’t really mind. ‘’No wonder it took you so long to join the fight, you were clearly busy.’’

‘’It was surprisingly simple once I figured out everything, these constructs are quite simple to read once you get some time to pay attention to them, of course, in the heat of a battle with human soldiers supporting these, it would be impossible to do so, but alone in the tomb with no outside interference…’’

Of course, left unsaid was that she was very familiar with the technology, meaning she knew where to hit, how to dismantle it safely and also its blind spots. The technology had evolved somewhat since her days, in the times of peace between her slumber and her death, however it was still familiar enough for her, and some designs, no matter how much time changed, were universal.

‘’I can’t believe it’s been five years already…’’ Claude broke her from her thoughts, now staring at the Throne in the Tomb, lost in thought. ‘’This is where it all started, huh?’’. 

He had no idea how right he was.

‘’In any case, we have arrived.’’ Walking past him, Sothis took a deep breath and sat on the throne, nothing happened, not that she had any hopes left for it anymore, Byleth wouldn’t come back, that was something she was slowly coming to terms with, it hurt, it really did, and she didn't think it'd stop anytime soon, but now she needed to focus. 

Pressing an almost unnoticeable tile, several vein-like bright green lines started spawning in the throne’s arm rests, surprising both Claude and Catherine, which she quickly raised her hand in response. ‘’Do not worry, this is normal, the mechanisms are activating.’’ Once she noticed their confusion, reminding her that such tech was unknown to current Fódlan, she elaborated, ‘’think of it as the way you would light up a torch, the fire almost explodes, before settling down in its normal shape, it is something similar here, merely the throne’s energy source suddenly activating and powering it on in an instant.’’

Catherine looked completely lost, Claude on the other hand was studying the way her fingers moved, eyes narrowed. ‘’Is it some sort of combination? A code determined by the tiles you press?’’

‘’More or less.’’ She smiled, motioning him to come closer so she could show him. ‘’This tile is the one you would use to activate the throne, currently, it is set only for my Crest, most likely a safety measure by Rhea.’’ She pointed at the tile her finger was still resting on. Soon after the green lines had covered the throne, several symbols started surfacing around the arm rests. ‘’And these are the other tiles, it is not codes, but commands.’’

‘’Commands? So these aren’t symbols but letters?’’

‘’It is a long lost tongue’’, Cichol added, covering for her as he walked next to Claude, pointing at the Nabatean letters. ‘’From a time where the Goddess and her Children walked the land.’’

Claude smiled like the cat that got the canary, Catherine however never looked so lost.

‘’I never saw anything like it before, neither in the library nor the books I managed to smuggle.’’ Claude didn’t even realize Cichol’s frown focused on him, completely entranced by the technology. ‘’You said it was only for your crest, is that something we can change?’’

‘’It is why we came here in the first place.’’ Slowly pressing a few tiles, Sothis made to show him exactly the combination she pressed. ‘’These form a command to ‘’Obey’’, now it is going to ask me who.’’ In that moment, the tiles changed to a familiar figure, the crests of Fódlan. ‘’Now as you can see, I can choose which one of the crest users the constructs will receive direct orders from.’’

‘’I see… It was smart of Rhea to put these to obey only you, given there’s only one Crest of Flame, I mean, Edelgard also has the Crest of Seiros, so making that the one they take orders from could easily end in disaster.’’

‘’We should be careful with who we add, and sadly it won’t work for uncrested people, as the crests are the only way these constructs can discern particular people.’’ These were built by Nabateans for Nabateans, and it showed, after all the crests were originally only theirs. 

‘’Well that leaves about five of our main team unable to order these around… I know they’re just for defense, but that would mean we’d have to leave our crest users in here or else the constructs wouldn’t obey anyone else…’’

‘’Actually, I may be able to work around that.’’ Sothis chuckled, finishing adding all Crests of the people in her current team. ‘’See this? This roughly translates into ‘’other’’, meaning I can add different means of it to recognize someone it should obey, right now I’m setting it to obey not only crest bearers of certain crests, but also anyone containing a communication device.’’

‘’...A what?’’

‘’W-Wait, you can’t seriously-’’

Sothis glared at Cichol, cutting him off. ‘’That is the other thing we came here for.’’ Pressing another combination, the walls whirred to life, a brick on the left side of the throne slowly erecting from the wall, on top of it several rectangular, thin tiles were emitting a faint glow, green lines around them not unlike the throne itself.

‘’What are those? Weapons?’’ Claude and Catherine made their way towards those, eyeing the unknown objects.

‘’Are you sure this is a good idea?’’ Cichol whispered, taking the distracting.

‘’I’ll explain later.’’

Leaving the throne, Sothis made her way towards the duo, picking one of the devices and revealing its other side, also metallic but blank outside of a small tile, which she pressed, revealing several new ones. 

‘’Each Symbol here represents one of the other device.’’ She pointed at the back of her device, which beyond the green lines, had a certain symbol in it. ‘’Claude, here, do what I did and press the symbol corresponding to my tile.’’

‘’Uh… Alright? This isn’t going to blow up on my hand, right?’’ Claude joked, still doing as she said, showing he paid careful attention to her movements and replicated them. ‘’Alright I pressed the symbol of your pad, so what is supposed to happen n-’’   


‘’Now you and I can communicate from a distance.’’ Sothis’ voice came from the device in his hand as she spoke into her own pad, Claude responded with an undignified yelp, letting go of the device and them fumbling trying to catch it before it fell on the floor.

‘’W-Wait…’’ Catherine looked at her own device. ‘’So if I…’’ She did the same combination, pressing the symbol for Sothis’ pad and speaking into her device, only to listen to her own voice from Sothis’ pad as she pointed it towards Catherine to show it to her.

‘’Holy… Wait… From how far can we talk with these things?’’

‘’Given the power of the spell behind them, I’d say from one corner of Fódlan to the other.’’

‘’WHAT?!” Both Claude and Catherine’s screams were captured by the devices, creating this weird echo chamber that made them cringe as they realized their mistake, their voice echoing around the Holy Tomb.

‘’The Archbishop had these just… Laying around?’’

‘’Think of how much easier life would be with these… Hell think of how many lives could be saved, what was Rhea _thinking_?!’’

‘’She was thinking about how many lives could be taken by using this.’’ Cichol interjected, sighing. 

‘’I understand that, Seteth, but if we were to be afraid of any technology, we should just return to sticks and stones, heck, even THAT could be easily used for violence.’’ Claude sighed, forcing himself to calm down, turning to Sothis. ‘’Can you teach me how to use it properly? I want to repass it to the team.’’

‘’Speaking of that…’’ Catherine interrupted. ‘’Since you can now reach me at any point… Would you mind if I left? I…’’

‘’You want to be there when Shamir wakes up?’’ Claude smiled, it didn’t look like a fake one, nodding at her once she confirmed his suspicions. ‘’Go on, Catherine, you more than deserve it, and this device will definitely make working together with Rodrigue much easier.’’

With a quick bow, which both Cichol and Claude waved off, Catherine responded with a small chuckle and left, her form vanishing in the darkness of the Tomb.

‘’By the way.’’ Claude turned back to Sothis. ‘’How did you figure all this out? The symbols, the technology, heck how did you know about the devices?’’

Sothis looked to Cichol for help, who merely ignored her gaze, the message of ‘’you got yourself into this mess, you fix it.’’ as clear as day. The accursed traitor, leaving his own poor mother on her own like that?!

‘’Uh… It was from the revelation.’’

Claude looked unsurprised, behind him, Cichol pinched the bridge of his nose.

/-/

‘’I hope you know what you’re doing.’’ Cichol had followed Sothis to her new quarters, she refused to take Byleth’s room, much less Seiros’, so he had to provide her with another place to stay, still in the second floor, safer compared to the others, something she didn’t like much, given it was more special treatment over everyone else.

‘’Honestly I am wondering how long I can keep up the ‘’revelation’’ excuse. He can’t exactly call me out on it.’’ She joked, Cichol’s frown showing he knew his mother was trying to distract him; she sighed in response, taking a more serious tone. ‘’I understand your concern, Cichol, but something had to be done.’’

‘’I do not disagree, without the machines, we would not be here now having this conversation.’’ He sighed, giving her a thankful nod before continuing. ‘’I am more wondering about that means going forward, as you seemed inclined to continue sharing the technology that has been long lost.’’

‘’I am.’’

‘’Then I once again hope you know what you are doing.’’

Sothis looked away, it seemed so simple, they couldn’t win without that technology, not in their current state, but what about after the war? What would happen if someone else got their hands on that technology again? And of course, the questions would keep coming about how she knows about it and where it is from. ‘’I… Don’t think I know… Do you believe what happened last time would repeat itself?’’

‘’I... ‘’ Cichol sighed. ‘’As much as I hate to admit it, mother, I am not a good person to make this decision. I am biased, as I saw the consequences of the technology being misused, and while I do not agree to Seiros’ keeping of Fódlan in the dark ages, I would rather see everything not belonging to the humans locked away in a vault than being used to harm my family again.’’

She made to talk but he raised a hand, politely asking her to wait as he gathered his breath.

‘’However… It is already being used to harm them, right now, the Agarthans will stop at nothing until they rule Fódlan and capture us. So while it brings me nothing but painful memories of the past, I’d rather those to making new even more painful ones.’’ His sincere smile slowly faded not soon after. ‘’I do feel some worry about the future however, do you plan on telling them?’’

‘’Yes.’’ That wasn’t up for debate, as soon as it was safer, she would reveal the truth and let them judge her accordingly.

‘’Then what do you think will happen with the technology then? Do you not think it will be turned against us?’’

‘’I… May have prepared for that.’’ Shame pooled inside of her, she didn’t believe it was lack of trust that made her put safeguards into the devices, but more being worried about her family. ‘’All devices made in the Holy Tomb have been fabricated with a safeguard to permanently disable them and safely eliminate any dangerous technology inside.’’

‘’That would not help your case if they found out.’’

‘’No, it would not.’’

It was something Seiros would’ve done, and that stung, not only because of how low it felt, but because of how her daughter’s actions in her own head felt so low. Even more because there was another detail she did not tell Cichol, that she never expected to survive the reveal, once she finished protecting Byleth’s students, she’d have fulfilled her friend’s wishes, thus there would be no point in sticking around.

So she would use the technology to send Cichol and Cethleann away, then destroy all the devices at once, keeping her family away from harm and allowing Fódlan to evolve naturally.

She’d be hated in response, seen as a monster, but she’d been expecting the worse already, so it wouldn’t affect her much. Sothis honestly hoped there was a better way, the gifts she had offered were meant to make everyone’s lives easier, bring about a brighter future to the land she grew to love, however between the Church hiding the truth about what happened to those who misused the technology, her family being at risk, and the fact she’d die hated by all, there was not a single person she could trust with the technology once she was gone.

In an ideal world, she’d be able to pass the technology onto people who understood the weight of it and would make sure it wasn’t used for conquest and war, learning from the mistakes of the past. 

That person would probably have been Byleth.

Sighing, she opened the door to her room. ‘’I need some rest, if you do not mind.’’

‘’Not at all mother, rest well.’’ Cichol turned his back to her. ‘’And… If you need anything, I am here for you. We both are’’

‘’I know.’’ She smiled, nodding, even if he couldn’t see.

Once inside she closed the door, locked it, and sat down on her bed.

The memories of what happened when she sat in the throne flooded back, the realization that this was definitive, that Byleth was gone and she’d have to face not only that, but her friend’s students’ rightful anger towards her. Finally alone in her room, away from Byleth’s students and her family, she was able to allow herself to cry, letting it all out.

/-/

‘’And that’s the last of it.’’ Cyril crossed the last item of their list as Ignatz, Leonie and Raphael placed the last couple of boxes on the dining hall’s floor. ‘’We are officially resupplied.’’

It had been about a week since the battle against the Empire’s troops, or as Claude liked to call it, ‘’The Battle for Garreg Mach Round 2’’, thanks to the help of Catherine’s militia and the constructs, they were able to cover their losses, not only in the fight but afterwards, as resupplying and assisting those in need was only possible thanks to the added numbers.

The new devices the professor had provided also helped, being capable of talking long distance meant better communication between different portions of the army, meaning less mistakes, misunderstandings and misinformation in general. The devices weren’t just given to anyone, mostly just the core members of the army, but they relayed any information, and Claude could keep tabs of all sides that way.

One detail Cyril didn’t miss was how the Golden Deer made a bigger more dramatic effort at keeping everyone in high spirits, helping out everywhere they could, being friendly and understanding, joking when possible, they understood it was a heavy loss, and to suffer it from the get go could easily make a good chunk of the army give up right away, and he didn’t doubt some of that was for their own sake as well, as they too seemed a bit shaken by what had happened. He himself was thankful for that effort, anything to keep his mind away from Shamir, Catherine had been watching her in the infirmary like a guard dog, and he’d have joined her, were it not for Claude needing his help in organizing everything.

‘’Well we’re about to become undersupplied, because all this work out’s got me starving.’’ Raphael joked, sitting down on the floor for a quick rest, his back supported on one of the boxes.

‘’We should be thankful we have this many mouths to feed, in all honesty, I’d rather having to constantly carry these boxes than to fight this war with just a few soldiers left.’’ Leonie sighed, soon following suit and sitting similarly to Raphael, Ignatz instead just catching his breath before resting his back on one of the hall’s support pillars. ‘’Catherine’s reinforcements have been a huge help, at least until Claude picks up reinforcements.’’

‘’One has to wonder however, why we would NEED reinforcements in the first place…’’ Ignatz thought out loud, catching their attention. ‘’If he wanted to start a war with the Empire of all things, why not bring out everything he has? I know the Alliance is split, but he has got to have more resources than that.’’

‘’I guess he underestimated the troops? Miscalculated?’’ Leonie offered, now sitting cross legged, showing more interest in their chitchat. ‘’It wouldn’t be the first time, we saw that accident in the battlefield.’’

‘’It’s one thing to be unaware of the side effects of an unknown compound, it’s something entirely different for a strategist to simply not understand the basic concept of strength in numbers though…’’

‘’Maybe he didn’t expect Edelgard’s troops would find us so soon? For all we know, back up is already on its way.’’ Raphael suggested, scratching his head.

‘’Then why not tell us in advance?’’

Cyril remained quiet, he knew Claude’s plan, and knew why he was working with so few soldiers. It was a huge gamble, but one that had to be taken if the Alliance Leader wished to get the ball rolling. While not quite agreeing with everything in the plan, namely the big risk it is to split the armies the way Claude did just to help his own goals in the end, Cyril could see the big picture, if it worked, this plan could very well kickstart change in Fódlan, the best kind, the one Claude’s been seeking for so long.

However that still needed them to survive, which meant Claude had to pull off a balancing act of fighting Edelgard head on with whatever troops he had left to keep her busy.

‘’Urgh, all this talking is just making me more tired, why isn’t Hilda here to help us?’’ Ignatz slumped, finally giving in and sitting on the floor.

‘’You’re kidding, right?’’ Cyril finally joined the chitchat. ‘’You guys gave her a thing that allows her to talk to people from a distance and you expect her to ever leave her room again?’’

‘’I mean, she has to eat at some point.’’

‘’Speaking of eating, you don’t think those things need food, do you?’’ Leonie pointed at the animated armors, currently helping the knights to carefully unbox their items and stock them around the kitchen. ‘’Because I’m honestly concerned as to what would be food for them… Or WHO.’’

‘’Leonie, come on.’’ Cyril sighed. ‘’Do you seriously expect that they’d let these things help if they ate people?’’

‘’The Archbishop had them locked for some reason, didn’t she?’’

Going by what Claude told him, the Archbishop was afraid of the technology being misused, Cyril could understand her fears, given how quickly a lost battle had been turned around with just a few of those things, that, combined with the already constant misuse of crests, people attempting to steal the church’s relics before and even the invasion on the Tomb to try and take Crest Stones, he could see how much worse things could’ve been if these things were well known before. ‘’And yet she gave them to the Professor to use if needed, really, she was probably just afraid of people misusing or trying to copy this kind of power.’’ Which, going by what Claude told him, had not only already happened, but was also the reason they remained at the Monastery.

‘’Speaking of them, why do _we _have to carry these things if they’re around?’’ Ignatz pointed at the boxes, still being opened and their contents carried away.

‘’Going by what Claude and the Professor worked out, they can’t operate outside of the Monastery, plus there’s a maximum number of soldiers that can be acting all at once.’’ Cyril shrugged. ‘’I’d say it’s for the better, honestly, we don’t need everyone growing complacent and letting the golems do all the work.’’

‘’I agree completely.’’ Another familiar person joined the conversation.

‘’Oh, hey Claude, you… Wow what happened?’’

Cyril turned and instantly saw what she meant, Claude was wearing his Alliance outfit, but it was dirtied and torn in some spots, nowhere near as bad as during the battle, but still showing signs of struggle.

‘’Is everything alright? Did someone attack you?’’

‘’Yeah… In self defense, I suppose.’’ Claude sighed, before turning to Cyril, ignoring the question in everyone’s eyes. ‘’You are right, though, Cyril, while these new things are helpful, they aren’t meant to replace our work, only to ease the load. They’re here to make life easier, not live our life for us.’’

He sat on the floor, along with everyone else, sighing once more. ‘’Which… Was why I tried dragging Hilda out of her room when I found out she was doing nothing but chatting in her communicator and ordering food delivered by the constructs…’’

‘’Oh…’’ They all said in unison, suddenly understanding Claude’s poor state.

‘’Did she tackle you or something?’’

‘’Well she screamed about me being a brute and daring to force such a delicate flower to do labor work… Then she grabbed me, lifted me over her head and threw me from her front door to the yard.’’ 

‘’That… Does explain your state, you want me to carry you to the infirmary?’’ Raphael offered, adjusting himself to get back up, before Claude raised both hands, stopping him.

‘’No need, big guy, I’m sturdier than that, just want to sit for a bit.’’ Looking at the team there, he slipped into an easygoing smile. ‘’So what are you guys up to?’’

‘’Oh you know, just finishing helping with the supplies.’’ Ignatz pointed at the boxes. ‘’Everything’s done and set, no trouble on the way either, seems like the Empire’s troops backed down from the entire area, including the villages.’’

‘’Catherine probably had a hand on that.’’

‘’I still can’t believe she’s back, heck, that _we _are back, right here in the monastery again… It feels like a lifetime ago…’’

‘’Yeah…’’ Claude chuckled, looking around. ‘’A lot has changed.’’

Their musing was interrupted by a beeping sound, it had no melody to it, sounding more like a small bell ringing, which Ignatz soon revealed to be the communicator in his pocket.

‘’Yes? Hilda? What d- You can’t be serious! Yes we finished restocking but y- Hilda!’’

‘’And somethings haven’t changed at all’’. Claude rolled his eyes, taking the device from Ignatz’s hands and pressing a combination of tiles in it, suddenly, Hilda’s voice had become louder, so all of them can listen to her.

_ ‘’Oh come on it’s just a quick snack it w-’’ _

‘’How about you come out and pick it up, ‘’delicate flower’’?’’ Claude cut Hilda off, the girl audibly gasping.

_ ‘’Oh hey Claude! I was just… You know, getting some food, I’ve been so tired lately and walking all the way to the dining hall, cooking, walking all the way back, it’s just too much for me.’’ _

‘’My condolences then, your device is blocked until you learn to pick up your own slack.’’ Claude said, pressing a combination of tiles. 

_‘’W-Wait what do you mean ‘’blocked’’? Claude what are y-’’_ Her voice was cut short, as the communication died, her symbol going dark.

‘’Or you know, until I get an apology over being thrown like a sack of potatoes.’’

‘’Wait how did you…?’’ Ignatz picked his device back, looking at the tiles, confused at what Claude did.’’

‘’I had the professor show me some other things about the devices, including a complete translation of the symbols so I can understand how to operate it better, you never know when it can be useful.’’ Claude shrugged.

‘’She’s gonna kill you for that.’’

‘’Well at least she’ll leave her room.

‘’CLAUDE!’’ A door slammed open in the dining hall, right behind the Alliance Leader, who’s only reaction was a smug grin without turning around.

‘’Like clockwork.’’

/-/

_ ‘’Catherine w-wait…’’  _

_ ‘’Good luck Seteth, may the goddess be with you.’’  _

_ The Wyverns flew, any attempts to strike them down stopped by Catherine and Alois, as Seteth, in his wyvern, attempting to remain awake, watched the two being surrounded, back to back, as they spared him a glance and nod, smiling at him. _

_ ‘’How about it Alois, one last stand?’’ _

_ ‘’Heh, at least when I meet Jeralt he won’t be too upset, after all we died saving young Byleth.’’ _

_ They both chuckled, too spent to waste any energy on anything above that, readying their weapons for a final time. _

_ A sword sliced towards Catherine, Thunderband sliced the blade like butter, cutting down the surprised soldier before they could even properly realize what happened. A lance aimed at her, Alois grabbed it, stopping it inches from the tired knight’s back, breaking it and smashing his shield into the soldier, the loud crack of bones signifying that one won’t be a problem anymore. _

_ Their armors had mostly been torn and damaged by now, the clothes under it and patches of skin visible, leaving several weak spots, they couldn’t afford to let a single hit connect or it was over. Alois had lost his axe, relying only on his shield and brute strength, while Catherine could feel her body struggling to power Thunderbrand, the weapon losing some of it’s shine, now about as strong as any normal sword, maybe an enchanted sword, if she could push herself. _

_ ‘’I’m sorry, Shamir, guess I was an idiot after all.’’ _

_ Three soldiers dashed towards her, weapons ready to cut her down, all aimed at her exposed skin; Catherine no longer had any strength to block their attack, she could barely lift Thunderbrand. That was the end. _

_ She didn’t dare close her eyes, she was a proud knight and would face her end dead on, accepting it. Which was how she saw the magic blast hit all three soldiers at once, knocking them down, instantly dead, right before her feet. _

_ ‘’Tch, accepting to die for so called ‘’honor’’? Taking death in stride because ‘’you’ve accomplished your mission?’’ This is why I cannot stand you knights.’’ A familiar voice berated her, Catherine’s eyes widening when she instantly recognized it.  _

_ ‘’I take it my father sent you to escort us to his little secret hideout then?’’ Felix Hugo Fraldarius, Lord Rodrigue’s son, presumed dead after the Fall of Garreg Mach, stood right before her, looking no worse for wear, mostly annoyed at her current state. ‘’Mercedes, we got two survivors here, take care of them while we take care of the trash.’’ He yelled at someone else, soon revealed to be another Blue Lions student presumed dead, and just like that he was gone, back into the shadows of the forest, the only sign of his presence being the screams of the enemies. _

_ ‘’Oh dear, Catherine, Alois, I wish we could’ve met again in better circumstances, here, please sit down, the troops are being taken care of.’’ Mercedes Von Martritz helped her lay on the snow, doing the same for Alois, using her magic on both, relief washing away the pain in their strained bodies, as both sighed. _

_ ‘’Y-You’re the ones we came to escort...? H-How…’’ _

_ ‘’We managed to hide after the ambush, while we couldn’t do much, me and the others remained under the radar until we could find a way to safely inform Lord Rodrigue.’’ _

_ ‘’Inform him of what?’’ _

_ ‘’Get them!’’ A soldier broke through the lines, dashing towards the three sat down in the snow, Catherine made to move, but froze as a looming, giant figure covered the soldier in its shadow. _

_ ‘’I’ll crush every last one of you bastards!’’ The figure roared, before a scythe slashed the soldier’s chest, the sheer force throwing him into a tree, the man barely able to gasp in surprise before his life expired. ‘’Do not leave a single one of them alive, they cannot know we are here.’’ _

_ His voice booming, Prince Dimitri, his hair unkept and long, an eyepatch implying a permanent facial injury, and armor black as the night, covered in a blue dusty cape, roared to the others, not that they had any plans on stopping. _

_ ‘’You’re alive!’’ _

_ Dimitri spared a glance at the two, a grunt acknowledging them before turning back to the combat. His snarl, combined with the crazed look in his eye made him not even look human, but more a cornered animal. _

_ What happened to the Prince to leave him in that state? _

/-/

Catherine honestly thought she was going to die that day, she had made peace with herself, accepted she’d done her best and there was nothing left for her, mission accomplished, she could be put to rest knowing there was some hope left for them.

Now, she was in the infirmary, not only alive, not only seeing the fruits of her efforts slowly taking shape into a possible counter attack against the Empire, but also keeping watch on Shamir as she rested, her wounds treated and her state now stable.

Prince Dimitri was alive, that was still something that shocked her, Lord Rodrigue had kept it a secret even from the knights, afraid the information could leak, and given how the Empire wanted him dead, any rumors of his survival could very well lead Edelgard and her forces to keep a closer watch on Faerghus, which would make their moves more difficult to hide.

But what honestly shocked her the most wasn’t his highness’ survival, but his STATE. He was a shell of the man he once was, barely forming words, barely interacting with anyone, only interested in striking the Empire, in fighting the most violent and brutal battle possible to have a chance at killing Edelgard. Something inside of him broke at the fall of Garreg Mach, and not even Rodrigue could get to him. He tried to keep the prince from doing anything they’d all regret, but it was clear Dimitri was unstable, his survival was being kept a secret even around Lord Rodrigue’s knights, as the noble is afraid their loyalties would shift to Dimitri, which would then guide them to their deaths. The other Blue Lions understand that, and they were painfully aware of their former leader’s state, keeping tabs on him at all times, well the ones that were left, of course.

Catherine couldn’t help the wince, Ashe had joined Rowe, since Lonato’s region was left unprotected and then annexed by Sir Gwendal, the young man unable to take control of the region because of his status as adopted son of Lonato, deciding instead to assist with protecting it, which meant siding with the current holders of the region, aka the Empire. It wasn’t directly her fault, but given how much that family had suffered because of her, the knight felt responsible for Ashe’s departure and lack of safety.

Right now, her mission was twofold, she was to provide Lord Rodrigue with intel on this new rebellion, in fact, they were helpfully provided with an extra communicator to deliver it to Rodrigue, keep an open line for dialogue, maybe assist them however she could, but also prevent them from making any moves that could put Faerghus in jeopardy. She didn’t think Claude would try and conquer Faerghus, but Lord Rodrigue didn’t want to risk any chances.

She was also not to tell of the Blue Lions, as they weren’t sure if there were any spies in Claude’s ranks, she didn’t like having to lie to their faces, especially given these were their friends, but Catherine had to think of the big picture.

A soft grunt snapped her out of her thoughts, her head turning towards the now slowly awakening Shamir.

She remained silent, merely moving closer, making sure everything was okay with her old partner, motioning to one of the healers so they could come check on Shamir.

Tired eyes finally opening, she squinted them in response to the afternoon sunlight that brightened up the room, even then, Catherine could see them moving around constantly, checking her surroundings, trying to make sense of her current predicament, until they glanced at her, at which point they stopped moving entirely, fixated on Catherine’s quiet figure, slowly widening as they adjusted to the light.

‘’Am I…?’’ She rasped, her throat clearly in desperate need of water, Catherine quickly offering her a canteen she had prepared just in case.

‘’H-Here, drink up, you’ve been out for a while.’’ Her voice cracked, and she couldn’t look Shamir in the eyes, she hated herself for being so weak in that moment.

She accepted the help, allowing Catherine to adjust her head and push the canteen into her lips, taking the water slowly, her eyes not once leaving Catherine.

Once she was done, the two remained in silence, Shamir slowly recollecting what had happened, as her expression looked more and more confused, while Catherine mustered the strength to say something.

‘’I should’ve-’’

‘’I’m sorry-’’

Both went silent again, after cutting each other off; the healer, noticing how awkward the situation was getting, did the smart thing and slowly walked away, leaving the two alone.

Taking a deep breath, Catherine looked Shamir straight in the eyes, gritting her teeth and ignoring her thoughts constantly reminding her of her mistake, of how she had been a fool.

‘’I am sorry Shamir, I should’ve listened to you, instead I risked my life for pride, and almost got killed in the process… I shouldn’t hav-’’

The knight could never finish her sentence, as two arms wrapped themselves around her, Shamir’s face resting on her shoulder as she refused to loosen her grip.

‘’S-Shamir?’’ 

‘’I thought… I thought you were dead… That I left you knowing you were on a suicidal crusade… That I LEFT YOU TO DIE.’’ Her shoulder felt damp, even now Shamir made an effort to hide her emotions, hiding her crying with a hug. ‘’I’m… I’m so sorry Catherine.’’

Her mind was a complete jumbled mess, she didn’t know what to think anymore, everything she wanted to say, all the emotions she felt at once, unsure of how to properly process what was currently happening.

So, in that moment, Catherine did the one thing she could think of, the one thing she had been wanting to do ever since she saw Shamir on that floor, bleeding out.

She embraced her partner back, and the tears finally came out.

/-/

‘’You called?’’ Cyril closed the door behind him, Claude’s ‘’office’’ was a far cry from what he had back in the Riegan estate, he merely took what was left of Hanneman’s office and called it a day, no questions asked, it was good since he could also check out the old professor’s research and try to compare notes with what he’d been uncovering on his own. 

His chair was also far more comfortable, which was a plus.

‘’Yeah, how’s Shamir?’’ Doing some small talk, Claude started picking up the files he wanted to discuss and re-reading them, while also paying attention to Cyril, multitasking was kind of a requirement to run the Alliance, especially in this crisis, and he’d always been pretty decent at it. 

‘’She’s doing better now, woke up, had a heart to heart with Catherine, went back to her old self soon after, probably cranky from being stuck in an infirmary bed for so long.’’ Cyril chuckled, seeming far more relieved now that Shamir was finally awake. ‘’Speaking of Catherine, do you trust her?’’

‘’Well, we’re in a war, so trust isn’t exactly being given away for free.’’ Cyril raised an eyebrow. ‘’We’ll see how this partnership goes, but for now? I don’t trust her, but I trust she cares about Shamir, and I trust Shamir, so…’’

‘’So you trust her to not do anything while Shamir is on our side, and Shamir to prevent her from trying anything if she finds out.’’ Cyril nodded, the kid picked up fast on Claude’s lines of thought, which was one of the reason they worked well together. ‘’Isn’t that basically holding Shamir hostage?’’

‘’Not really, it’s not like I _planned _for this, I didn’t even know Catherine was alive. I’m just trying to show you how for now there’s nothing to worry about on that end.’’

‘’So, I assume you didn’t call me just to have a heart to heart.’’ scraping a chair on the floor, Cyril sat down, ready to talk business.

‘’I actually wanted you to send a message to our troops on the outside. I want them to spare as many as they possibly can back to Fódlan, then meet up back in the Alliance to regroup and have Judith bring them to us.’’

‘’That… Will be absolute hell to do under the Empire’s nose.’’ Cyril cringed.

‘’It would, which is why I want them to wait a few more weeks before moving out, until the Empire gets the message about those cursed, daring rebels, led by the suddenly ressurged wielder of the Crest of Flames, bearer of the Sword of the Creator, leading an army of giant stone creatures against her enemies.’’ Claude’s over dramatic tone made Cyril roll his eyes.

‘’So all focus will be on us then, making it easier for them to get through, alright, if we plan this right, we can probably get everything ready by the end of the month.’’ Cyril sighed, then suddenly crossing his arms. ‘’But you’re the one meeting up with Judith, I am _not _meeting with her on your name after you dump a plan that’s nothing but logistics hell into her hands.’’ 

‘’Heh don’t worry, I planned on going anyways, we’ll find a good place under the radar to meet up with the troops, split the team in two, one side remains here in case of an attack, the other goes meet up with Judith, and then, well, hopefully by the end we’re all alive.’’

‘’Just one question, Claude, why so suddenly?’’

‘’Our plan is already almost done anyways, we can bring back some troops to get the ball rolling here, plus…’’ He sighed, reading the paperwork to distract himself. ‘’That last battle… It was way too close, Cyril.’’

Cyril glanced towards his hand, he tried to hide the shaking by messing with the papers, reorganizing them, never keeping his hand still, but the kid had already seen it, given his supportive smile, already getting up to go prepare things. ‘’I’ll go prepare everything, don’t worry. For now, I just need a message and your signature, after it you can relax until we get the answer.’’

Reclining on the chair, Claude left another sigh, this time a shakier one.

‘’Thank you, Cyril.’’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IM STILL ALIVE GUYS
> 
> Well that sure took a while, I'm sorry for taking so long to prep this up, especially given it's mostly just the cast calming down from last chapter and setting up things further down the road, it's not the meatiest chapter or the most interesting for that, but hopefully it can satiate you all for now.  
So what happened? A bunch of things, I got really busy with college, since I had to adjust to it being all online, and the sheer number of stuff these classes ask of you combined with the current setup just being hard for me to pay attention very well kinda forced me to spend double the time I usually take to study, not counting all reading and assignments I had to work on.  
Other than that I guess I was trying to get myself in the mood again, there always seemed to have something in the way, something urgent I had to take care of first, something else I wanted to do, a personal project I wanted to write instead, and when I realized it, almost four months had passed.  
Hopefully I can now kick things back into gear, especially since September 13th marked the one year anniversary of the fic! I wish I could offer more to celebrate, but I'll try to pick up the pace, things should be a bit easier on my end now that I managed to cover most of my backlog of college studies.  
Thank you all for reading and commenting on the fic this last year, I was honestly surprised with how much traction it got and how many people were interested in this silly idea of mine, hope my story can entertain and satisfy you all once it's all said and done, I'd say a few more chapters and we'll reach the halfway point, so hopefully I won't end up with another hiatus until then.  
Once again, thank you all for reading and commenting, stay safe out there and have a good day!


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